Even the great US goofed on Maya Angelou

Even great poets are misquoted by big corporations. United States Postal Service decided to honour the memory of late Maya Angelou one of America’s and the world’s well-known poets on one of its Forever stamps, and gaffed in the process by adding a quote supposedly from the poet, but they actually quoted another author.

Instead of quoting from Maya’s vast works on the stamp that bore her photo, the US postal service quoted a children’s book author, Joan Walsh Anglund. From the book, “A Cup Of Sun.” The quote reads: “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

The confusion may have occurred due to the connection with Maya’s autobiography titled “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”.

They have since owned up to the mistake though the stamps have been printed already and cannot be changed. They explained why they made such mistake in the first place, saying it was because Maya Angelou herself had often used that quote.

Maya Angelou would be remembered for, among remarkable forms of arts like music, dancing etc, her many great written works and one among them is the popular poem “The Pulse Of Morning”, which she once recited at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration.

She had lived and worked in Africa, especially in Ghana and was undeniably passionate about the true freedom of the continent and her people. She died in May 2014.

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