What the exam asks
In Paper 2 (25 marks), you answer one of four general questions in a closed-book essay comparing two literary works. Because a poetry work is a collection, discussing ‘Human Family’ alongside a more confrontational Angelou poem such as ‘Still I Rise’ shows knowledge of the whole work (Criterion A, 5 marks) and range of authorial choices (Criterion B1, 5 marks) when you compare Angelou’s collection with a second literary work such as The Merchant of Venice (Criterion B2, 5 marks). You can also use a 40-line extract from ‘Human Family’ for the individual oral (40 marks) to explore a global issue within the field of culture, identity and community.
Core ideas
Form and rhyme: the disarming quatrain
The poem consists of 42 lines arranged into 12 stanzas: nine four-line stanzas (quatrains) followed by a two-line refrain printed three times at the close. The quatrains follow an rhyme scheme (rhyming lines 2 and 4 with simple, sometimes half-rhymed pairs such as family / comedy, profundity / reality, delight / white and land / man).
Why choose such a light, predictable form for a weighty subject like human division? A complex or lofty form might create distance between speaker and listener. By choosing short lines and ballad-like quatrains, Angelou makes her humanist creed sound as natural and indisputable as a children’s rhyme. The form argues that recognizing our shared humanity requires no complex philosophy—only honest observation.
Structure: catalogue, concession and antithesis
The poem’s architecture relies on two structural choices:
- Catalogue (listing): Across the nine quatrains, the speaker inventories human variety. Stanza 1 introduces the title’s human family and contrasts serious people with those who live for comedy. Subsequent stanzas list contrasting temperaments, skin colours (naming shades of brown, pink, beige, tan and white, and even purple and blue), geographical origins and personal habits.
- Concession and antithesis: Rather than pretending differences do not exist, the speaker concedes them openly. The observing “I” of stanzas 1–6 gives way to “we” in stanzas 7 and 8 (people everywhere love, lose, weep and laugh, and the differences are called minor beside what is shared), and the ninth stanza then states the central antithesis (direct contrast of ideas): alike versus unalike.
| Structural section | Stanzas | Authorial choice and movement |
|---|---|---|
| The inventory of variety | Stanzas 1–6 | Catalogue and plain observation: The speaker lists contrasts in temperament, skin tone, culture and experience using an observational “I” who watches and travels. |
| The widening “we” | Stanzas 7–8 | Pronoun shift: The “I” becomes “we” as the catalogue turns to what people do in every country (love, lose, weep, laugh, seek success, are born and die), and the speaker first calls the differences minor beside the likeness. |
| The pivot (volta, a turn) | Stanza 9 | Concession to assertion: The speaker returns to the poem’s first line, concedes the differences once more, addresses the audience directly as “my friends”, and states the core claim in its final form. |
| The closing chant | Stanzas 10–12 | Triple refrain couplet: The final two lines of stanza 9 are repeated three times as standalone two-line stanzas, turning an observation into a communal creed. |