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Poetry Analysis of Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise"

"Still I Rise"

Historical and Cultural Context

Poetic Devices

Meaning of the Poem

Simile:

"like dust, I'll rise"

Metaphor:

"I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide"

Personification:

"You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness,"

Tone:

Assertive, Confident, Pride and Sarcasm (when read aloud for emphasis)

Point of View:

Maya Angelou ( she is telling the poem)

Imagery:

"Oil wells pumping in my living room", etc.

Alliteration:

Repeats "I Rise" and "You may."

Influences on the Author (in her life):

  • Being black and a women during the time period that she was / when this poem was written.
  • Angelou was sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend in 1937.

Influences on the Author (in society):

  • For women rights in that time period
  • Responding to the growing African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States, from the 1950's to the early 1970's

Subject:

Ultimately representing black people, women

Talking About:

Many people can talk down on and degrade blacks and women but it won't make them stop from rising above it.

Why the Poem was Written:

To be the voice of those unheard/degraded/put down/un-noticed.

Time Period:

During the civil rights time period - 1950's/1960's

Where:

In the "Jim Crow" South

Poem's Attitude:

Determined, Strong

Shift:

No major shit except in structure after eighth stanza.

Second Look at the Title

  • When I take a second look at the title, nothing changed. The title still means the same thing to me when I first read it.

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don’t you take it awful hard

‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I’ve got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Put in Your Own Words

  • Angelou uses different examples and scenarios that people might do to her such as, "you may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies..." but she will always rise above it.
  • Maya Angelou portrays confidence and will to always get up when put down.

Theme

  • The theme of "Still I Rise" is really about self respect, and confidence. In the poem, she reveals how she will overcome anything with her self-esteem. She shows how nothing can get her down. She will rise to any occasion and nothing, not even her skin color will hold her back.

  • This theme helps convey her message because at some points, when she's reading it, she laughs. This emphasizes her self-confidence even more. In the poem, she also asks rhetorical questions to showcase her pride.

Structure

Number of Lines:

Forty Three

Number of Stanzas:

Eight

Patterns:

Repetitive - "I rise"

Beats Per Line:

9,6,9,6 the 8,7,8,7 then 6,7,6,3

Rhythms:

Irregular, free verse

Significance to the Deliberate Choices:

It's all for emphasis

Meaning of the Title

Maya Angelou Reciting "Still I Rise"

  • No matter what happens or what is thrown at Maya Angelou, she will always rise.

0:43 Seconds Poem Starts

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