“Country Lover” Summary

• The speaker describes a guy listening to the blues. He's wearing shoes with sharp toes and stylish pants that cut off above the ankle. He's out at a Saturday night dance, drinking a bright-red soft drink—and he'll dance with any woman who's around.

“Country Lover” Themes

• 

  Southern Black Masculinity, Confidence, and Fun

  In just 17 words, "Country Lover" conjures up a scene, a character, and a culture, capturing the energy of a young Black man from the southern U.S. sometime around the 1960s. Describing a "Country Lover" (a rural ladykiller), the poem's speaker approvingly observes his stylishness, his confidence, and his immersion in a distinctly Southern world of "red soda water" (a bright-red soft drink) and the "funky blues." A snapshot of a place, time, and character, the poem celebrates the joie de vivre of Southern Black culture at the time—and particularly of that culture's young men.

  The "Country Lover" the speaker describes is a confident and stylish guy. Dressed in "keen toed shoes" (shoes with sharp points) and "high water pants" (pants that cuff a couple inches above the ankles), he's at the height of 1960s style—and he's ready to tear up the dance floor. With the "funky blues" playing, he's eager to dance with "anybody's daughter"; he's there to have a good time, the poem suggests, and the ladies had better watch out.

  This economical description of a type of rural Lothario one might see at the "Saddy night dance" (the Saturday night dance, that is) feels dangerous, fun, and very Southern (as the colloquial pronunciation of "Saddy" underscores). This kind of man, the poem suggests, is a guy you'd get used to seeing if you often went out dancing in the South in the 1960s. He might be a little bit of a player, a danger to the ladies, but he's also stylish, confident, and charismatic. In describing him, the poem celebrates him and also delights in the world around him: a world that revels in the "funky blues" and knows how to have a good time.

  This short poem might feel especially celebratory considering its context. Angelou published this poem in 1978, but, again, it certainly seems to record the world closer to the '60s, when the Civil Rights movement was in full swing and young Black men were fighting (and not infrequently dying) for their rights. This tribute to a swaggery, life-loving kind of Black Southern masculinity honors a side of Black culture that might otherwise be subsumed by stories of suffering and struggle.

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-6

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Country Lover”

• Lines 1-4

  Funky blues ...
  ... Saddy night dance

  “Country Lover” uses a combination of colloquial language and short, sharp descriptions to thrust readers right into a specific place and time: the American South sometime around the 1960s. The country lover of the title is all dressed up in his “keen toed shoes” and “high water pants”—pointy, polished wingtips and pants that cuff a couple of inches above the ankle, the apex of fashion in the '60s. Some “funky blues” music is being played at the “Saddy night dance”—that is, the Saturday night dance, as described in a rich Black Southern accent.

  None of these four lines is longer than three words long, and yet a whole world spills out of them. The very brevity of the poem's phrasing helps to set the tone. The poem is structured through intense parallelism. Every line is a brief, punchy entry on a list describing a night on the town, like so:

  Funky blues
  Keen toed shoes

  The accentual meter (a meter counted by number of beats rather than measured out in regular metrical feet like iambs or trochees) and the rhymed couplets here help to create the effect, too: the rhythms and rhymes feel as punchy and lively as the “funky blues” music that's playing.

  What’s more, the world feels open and alive from the get-go. The speaker is clearly a regular at the scene they describe, intimately familiar with what goes on at the “Saddy night dance”: their accent and their knowing descriptions of the “country lover” make that clear. They don’t need to go on at length about what they see. They know that just mentioning these few details will be enough to let readers in on what’s happening tonight. The poem thus feels inviting, friendly, and casual—but also charged with Saturday-night energy.

• Lines 5-6

  Red soda water ...
  ... and anybody's daughter

  

  

  

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“Country Lover” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Colloquialism

  This short poem calls up a whole world in just a few short lines. A big part of its conjuring power comes from the speaker’s colloquialisms: their pronunciation and their vocabulary lets readers know that the poem is set in the world of Black culture in the southern United States.

  Introducing readers to the “country lover” of the title—a young ladykiller out for the weekend—the speaker tells us he’s at the “Saddy night dance.” The word “Saddy” captures the speaker’s Southern Black accent as they pronounce the word “Saturday,” an effect that helps to make the “Saddy night dance” feel even more familiar and habitual. The speaker and the “country lover” alike have spent plenty of time out at the “Saddy night dance,” the reader gathers.

  And if that’s so, they’ve also spent plenty of time listening to the “funky blues.” The word “funky” here helps to set the poem in a time as well as a place: “funky” only became a term of approval in the 1950s, and for a long time it was distinctly associated with Black American slang.

  The speaker’s use of these colloquial words makes the poem feel relaxed and familiar. The speaker is right at home in the world of the “country lover,” and they invite readers into that world with them.

  Where colloquialism appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “Funky blues”
  • Line 4: “Saddy”

• Parallelism

  

  

  

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  Where parallelism appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-5
  • Line 6

• Imagery

  

  

  

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  Where imagery appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “Keen toed shoes”
  • Line 5: “Red soda water”

“Country Lover” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Keen toed shoes
• High water pants
• Saddy
• Red soda water

• (Location in poem: Line 2: “Keen toed shoes”)

  Shoes with sharp, pointy toes.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Country Lover”

• Form

  "Country Lover" conjures up a whole scene (and a lively, vivid central character) in just one six-line stanza. The poem's snappy lines—never more than three words long, and sometimes fewer!—capture the equally snappy energy of the stylish, confident, cool young man the speaker describes on a Saturday night out at the dance. And its pulsing accentual meter and catchy couplet-driven rhyme scheme helps to evoke the compulsive rhythm of the "funky blues" on the dancefloor.

  The poem's form suggests that this country lover is a guy who doesn't waste words or time. He's here to have fun with "anybody's daughter," and the poem gets him out on the floor among the girls in just a few short, evocative lines.

  In its confident, playful brevity, this poem feels like a celebration of young Black American masculinity (as well as, perhaps, a little warning to the girls: this guy will flirt with "anybody's daughter," so watch out, ladies).

• Meter

  "Country Lover" is written in accentual meter. That means that it uses around the same number of strong beats per line—either two or three, in this case—but doesn't stick to any one kind of metrical foot, like the da-DUM of the iamb or the DUM-da-da of the dactyl. The lines can instead use as many unstressed syllables as the poet likes.

  Accentual meter here creates a jaunty, varied rhythm with a driving pulse, a fitting effect for a poem describing a cocky guy at a dance. Readers can hear the beat of the "funky blues" in the background as the speaker describes the scene in lines 1-3:

  Funky blues
  Keen toed shoes
  High water pants

  Like the poem's lively colloquial vocabulary, these playful rhythms help to capture the speaker's upbeat energy. Whether they use two beats or three, these lines feel punchy and fun.

  The rhythm of the lines does evolve a little over the course of the poem: the two-word opening line, "Funky blues," feels a lot more compact than the pattering rhythm of the last line, "and anybody's daughter." The poem thus seems to get looser and more playful as it rolls along.

• Rhyme Scheme

  This short poem uses a lively rhyme scheme of couplets, running:

  AABBCC

  These rhymes fit right in with the poem's brisk two- and three-beat accentual rhythms: everything here sounds snappy and crisp.

  Playful, easy, and jaunty, the rhyme scheme matches the energy of the cocky young man this poem describes. Perhaps the neatly paired rhymes here also suits the "country lover" in his stylish outfit: he's considered every detail of his look for the evening, from his "keen toed shoes" to his "high water pants," and the rhymes feel as snappy and coordinated as his clothes.

“Country Lover” Speaker

• The poem's speaker is an outside voice looking on at the poem's main character: the "Country Lover" of the title, a young man having a good time at a weekend dance. Describing this figure's stylish clothes and the energy of the "funky blues," the speaker paints an approving picture of a lively guy enjoying himself. Perhaps, though, they also hint that this young lover might be a little bit of a ladykiller, not altogether to be trusted: he'll dance with "anybody's daughter," any girl on the dance floor.

  The speaker's voice suggests they belong to the same world as the country lover. Colloquial pronunciations like "Saddy" (meaning "Saturday") and references to "red soda water" (a soft drink often served at Juneteenth celebrations) suggest that the speaker and the country lover are both Black Americans, likely from the South—like Maya Angelou herself, who grew up in Arkansas.

“Country Lover” Setting

• The poem takes place at a "Saddy night dance" (that is, a dance on Saturday night). Aside from that, there aren't any direct details about the setting. Nonetheless, readers get a strong sense of where and when this poem takes place through the speaker's voice and their description of the "Country Lover." With his "high water pants" and his "keen toed shoes," this man would be right in style for the 1960s. And the speaker's accent (in which "Saturday" becomes "Saddy") tells readers that they and the young man they describe are Black Americans, probably living in the southern United States (if the "red soda water," a bright red soft drink often served at barbecues and Juneteenth celebrations in the South, is anything to go by).

  The poem's setting thus captures a moment of lively fun and personal pride in a time and place of struggle and danger. In the 1960s, the U.S. was in the throes of the Civil Rights movement, in which Black Americans and their allies stood up against racism and fought for desegregation and equal rights. This poem takes a snapshot of a young Black Southern man of this time, celebrating his cocky stylishness and his lust for life (and for "anybody's daughter").

Literary and Historical Context of “Country Lover”

Literary Context

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was one of the most beloved American writers of the 20th century. She first became famous for her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in which she describes her troubled childhood with an honesty and openness that many of her early critics found shocking—and many of her early readers found moving and inspiring. Over the course of her long career, she would write a whole series of memoirs, as well as many books of poetry. "Country Lover" first appeared in her acclaimed 1978 collection And Still I Rise.

Angelou was a member of the Black Arts Movement, a cultural movement that sprang up in Harlem in the 1960s and '70s. In response to oppression, violence, and racism, Black writers and artists including Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and Etheridge Knight sought to foster a Black artistic community free from the dominance of white society. Their work centered Black experiences and articulated visions of justice and social change. This poem's description of a young Black man's swagger on a night out shows the defiantly celebratory face of the movement.

As a Black American poet and memoirist, Angelou also saw herself as a member of a literary tradition that included writers like Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar. She was also good friends with the essayist and novelist James Baldwin; the two were both major voices in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and '70s. In turn, Angelou has influenced countless people, from the cartoonist Keith Knight to the former U.S. President Barack Obama.

Historical Context

The fashion choices of this poem's "Country Lover"—high-water pants, pointy shoes—suggest that this poem takes place some time around the 1960s, right in the middle of the American Civil Rights movement. This movement was focused on achieving equality for Black people and other people of color in the United States. The tireless and courageous efforts of Civil Rights activists led to landmark legislation and judicial rulings, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Angelou herself was one such Civil Rights activist: she worked with both Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Much of her poetry famously celebrates Black resilience and courage. Here, she honors the joy and liveliness of the Southern Black culture she grew up with in her native Arkansas, familiarly describing a Saturday night out where the "funky blues" play and the "red soda water" (a bright-red soft drink) flows like, well, regular old water.

More “Country Lover” Resources

• External Resources

  • Angelou's Website — Visit Angelou's personal website to find a wealth of information about her life and her long, influential career.

  • An Interview with Angelou — Watch a delightful, lively interview with Maya Angelou, given toward the end of her life.

  • A Brief Biography — Read the Poetry Foundation's short overview of Angelou's life and work.

  • Angelou's Legacy — Read Angelou's obituary in the Guardian.

  • A Celebration of Angelou — Read former U.S. President Barack Obama's memorial to Angelou.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Maya Angelou

  • Caged Bird

  • Harlem Hopscotch

  • Life Doesn't Frighten Me

  • On Aging

  • On the Pulse of Morning

  • Phenomenal Woman

  • Refusal

  • Remembrance

  • Still I Rise

  • When Great Trees Fall

  • Woman Work