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Still I Rise. By Maya Angelou. 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,
- Phenomenal Woman
An acclaimed American poet, storyteller, activist, and...
- Poems of Hope and Resilience
Still I Rise. Maya Angelou A Center. Ha Jin “Hope” is the...
- Maya Angelou
An acclaimed American poet, storyteller, activist, and...
- Phenomenal Woman
Discover the meaning behind Maya Angelou's inspiring poem, with an audio recording of actress Rosie Perez reading this classic work, which has been celebrated by Serena Williams, Cory Booker, and other public figures.
- Summary
- Meaning
- Structure and Form
- Tone and Mood
- Poetic Techniques and Figurative Language
- Themes
- Imagery
- Symbolism
- Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
- Historical Context
‘Still I Rise‘ by Maya Angelou(Bio | Poems)is an inspiring and moving poem that celebrates self-love and self-acceptance. The poem takes the reader through a series of statements the speakermakes about herself. She praises her strength, her body, and her ability to rise up and away from her personal and historical past. There is nothing, the speake...
The title of the poem, ‘Still I Rise’ is a proclamation against the society that tries to dominate the speaker’s voice. The speaker or the poetic personarepresents the poet’s voice. She represents the black community as a whole. Through this poem, she tries to break through the shackles of domination and raises her voice to say that she and her peo...
‘Still I Rise’ is a nine-stanza poem that’s separated into uneven sets of lines. The first seven stanzas contain four lines, known as quatrains, stanza eight has six lines and the ninth has nine. The first seven stanzas follow a rhyme schemeof ABCB, the eighth: ABABCC, and the ninth: ABABCCBBB.
Within ‘Still I Rise’ Angelou takes a strong and determined tone throughout her writing. By addressing her’s, and all marginalized communities’ strengths, pasts, and futures head-on, she’s able to create a very similar mood. A reader should walk away from ‘Still Rise’ feeling inspired, joyful, and reinvigorated with courage and strength.
Angelou makes use of several poetic techniques and different kinds of figurative language in ‘Still I Rise’. These include anaphora, alliteration, enjambment, and similes. The first, anaphora, is the repetitionof a word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines, usually in succession. In this piece, a reader should look to stanza six for an exam...
The major poetic themesof this work are self-empowerment, perseverance, and injustice. Throughout the text, the speaker, who is commonly considered to be Angelou herself, addresses her own oppressor. The “you” she refers to represents the varieties of injustices that people of color, women, and all marginalized communities have dealt with as long a...
This poem is filled with vivid imagery. To begin with, there is visual imagery in the very beginning. Through this line, “But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” So, here the image of “dust” helps the speaker to make her point. According to her, none can control the dust when the revolutionary wind arrives. Likewise, she will rise like dust particles and...
Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’ is a symbolic poem. It contains several symbols that refer to different ideas. For example, in the first stanza, the poet uses “dirt” as a symbol. It represents how the black community was treated in history. In the following stanzas, there are several symbolic references. These are “oil wells”, “gold mines” and “diamonds”....
Stanza One
In this stanza, Maya Angelou(Bio | Poems)gives her heart and soul to declare that nothing and no one could oppress her or keep her down. She doesn’t care what the history books saw, for she knows they are full of “twisted lies.” She will not let it bother her that others “trod” her “in the very dirt.” She proclaims that if she is trodden in the dirt, she will rise like dust.
Stanza Two
In the second stanza, she asks a question. This is an interesting question, as she refers to her own tone as “sassiness” and asks the hearer if her sassy tone is upsetting. The poet notices that the people around her in her society are “beset with gloom” when she succeeds. She questions this. She knows that she is succeeded in life, in her writing, and as a woman. The “oil wells pumping in [her] living room” symbolizeher success.
Stanza Three
In this stanza, she compares herself to the moon and the sun as they are affected by the tides. This gives the reader the understanding that the speaker has no other choice but to rise out of her affliction. Try as a society might keep her oppressed, it is in her nature to rise and stand against oppression just as it is the nature of the tides to respond to the moon.
The poem, ‘Still I Rise’ was published in Maya Angelou’s poetrycollection, “And Still I Rise” in 1978. It is the collection’s title poem. This poem appears in the third part of the book. Angelou wrote a play in 1976 by the same title and the work also touches on similar themes such as courage, injustice, and spirit of the Black people. This poem ap...
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- “Still I Rise” Summary.
- “Still I Rise” Themes. Defiance in the Face of Oppression. Where this theme appears in the poem: Lines 1-4. Lines 5-6. Lines 7-8. Line 9. Lines 10-12. Lines 13-16. Lines 17-20.
- Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Still I Rise” Lines 1-4. You may write ... ... dust, I'll rise. Lines 5-8. Does my sassiness ... my living room.
- “Still I Rise” Symbols. Valuable objects. Where this symbol appears in the poem: Lines 7-8: “I walk like I've got oil wells / Pumping in my living room” Lines 19-20: “I laugh like I've got gold mines / Diggin’ in my own backyard”
“Still I Rise” is a poem by Maya Angelou that first appeared in her 1978 poetry collection and gave it its name: And Still I Rise. Like other poems in this landmark collection, “Still I Rise” features a Black female speaker who addresses the patriarchal and racist American society of her time.
‘Still I Rise’ is a poem by the American poet Maya Angelou (1928-2014), published in her 1978 collection And Still I Rise. A kind of protest poem which is defiant as well as celebratory, ‘Still I Rise’ is about the power of the human spirit to overcome discrimination and hardship, with Angelou specifically reflecting her attitudes as a ...
Jan 29, 2021 · Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" is a powerful poem that draws on a range of influences, including her personal background and the African American experience in the United States. Its...
