“Phenomenal Woman” is a poem that first appeared in Maya Angelou’s third poetry collection, titled And Still I Rise (1978). The poem features a speaker who, despite not being as thin as her society tells her she needs to be, nevertheless embodies her femininity with an attractive self-confidence. The speaker’s allure baffles women who are more conventionally pretty, and who want to know the source of her secret. Likewise, the men who feel drawn to the speaker can’t fully explain the cause of their desire. They swarm around her like honeybees in a hive, but they can’t decipher the mystery of her attractiveness. To account for her feminine mystique, the speaker elaborates how the source of her allure lies not in her physical appearance, but in the “phenomenal” way she embodies her sexuality. For example, the secret to her attractiveness lies not in the physical appearance of her facial features, but rather in “the fire in [her] eyes” (line 22), “the curl of [her] lips” (line 9), and “the flash of [her] teeth” (23). The speaker explains this in a tone that is equally proud and defiant, showing herself to be a feminist who advocates for the liberating potential of self-acceptance.

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