Maya Angelou, born in 1928, lived through some of the worst oppression and inequality for African American people. Although slavery had been long abolished, Angelou saw its effects on society and the African American people. ‘Still I Rise’ is her declaration that she, for one, would not allow the hatefulness of society to determine her own success.
The poem, ‘Still I Rise,’ is not only a proclamation of her own determination to rise above society but was also a call to others to live above the society in which they were brought up.
Summary
‘Still I Rise‘ by Maya Angelou is an inspiring and moving poem that celebrates self-love and self-acceptance.
The poem takes the reader through a series of statements the speaker makes 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 speaker declares, that can hold her back. She is going to “rise” above and beyond anything that seeks to control her.
You can watch Maya Angelou recite the poem below.
Meaning
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 persona represents 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 people are no longer mute. They have got the voice to proclaim their rights. No matter how hard they try, she will prove to them the abilities of black people.
The phrase, “I rise” is not about a singular uprising. It’s a collective revolutionary voice that consists of the raging uproar of a class, oppressed and betrayed for a long time.
Structure and Form
‘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 scheme of ABCB, the eighth: ABABCC, and the ninth: ABABCCBBB.
Tone and Mood
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.
Poetic Techniques and Figurative Language
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 repetition of 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 example. Here, Angelou uses the phrase “You may” at the start of lines one through three.
Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same letter. For example, ” huts of history” in line one of the eighth stanza and “gifts” and “gave” in stanza nine.
Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One has to move forward to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. For example, the transition between lines two and three of the first stanza and two and three of the second stanza.
A simile is a comparison between two unlike things that uses the words “like” or “as”. A poet uses this kind of figurative language to say that one thing is similar to another, not like metaphor, that it “is” another. In the third stanza of ‘Still I Rise’ with the line “Just like hopes springing high” or in lines three and four of the fifth stanza: “’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines / Diggin’ in my own backyard”.
Themes
The major poetic themes of 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 as history has been recorded.
She throws a prior self-derogatory way of thinking to the side and addresses herself lovingly and proudly. The poet seeks to empower herself, as well as all those who have doubted their abilities, strength, beauty, intelligence, or worth. This is seen through lines like “You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I’ll rise”.
Imagery
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 blind those who trod her before.
The following stanzas contain some more images. For example, readers can find the image of oil wells pumping oil. The third stanza has images of the moon, sun, and tides. In this stanza, she depicts the tides that are springing high. It is compared to “hope”.
There is an image of a black individual who is in extreme distress. This image represents how they were tortured and made silent by the unlawful fist. Angelou uses the images of “gold mines” and “diamonds” to heighten the irony of this piece. Lastly, the “black ocean” unfolds how powerful the speaker and her people are. Their greatness is like that of the immensity of the ocean.
Symbolism
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”. They collectively refer to the resourcefulness of the speaker. Those symbols do not deal with anything materialistic, rather they hint at her intellectual wealth.
In the fourth stanza, the moon and sun represent the speaker herself. While the upward movement of tides symbolizes how hope springs in her heart concerning the future. Besides, some phrases deal with the concept of slavery in this line, “Bowed head and lowered eyes.”
There is an important symbol of the “black ocean” in the eighth stanza. This ocean represents black people. The speaker says, “I’m a black ocean”. Here, it acts as a symbol of energy and immensity. The last stanza contains another symbol in the usage of the word “night”. It is a symbol of fear, oppression, and pessimism.
Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
Stanza One
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.
In this stanza, Maya Angelou 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
Does my sassiness upset you?
(…)
Pumping in my living room.
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” symbolize her success.
Stanza Three
Just like moons and like suns,
(…)
Still I’ll rise.
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.
Stanza Four
Did you want to see me broken?
(…)
Weakened by my soulful cries.
The speaker’s questions in this stanza are direct, pertinent, and appropriately accusing. She knows that her own success is received with bitterness by the racist people in her society. So she directs these questions at a society that has long tried to keep her oppressed. She asks them if they want to see her broken, oppressed, depressed, and bitter.
She asks these questions know that this indeed is what many in society wanted. They did not want to see a black woman rise out of the oppression of her society and succeed. The speaker knows this and she draws attention to it with these revealing, yet cutting questions.
Stanza Five
Does my haughtiness offend you?
(…)
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
She continues with the questions directed at a racist society when she asks whether her “haughtiness” is offensive. She knows that society resents seeing a black woman full of pride. This question has an air of sarcasm which serves to point out the hypocrisy of society as it is embittered by the success of one that it has tried to oppress. The speaker continues in a sarcastic tone as she pretends to comfort the hearer.
The poet says, “don’t you take it awful hard.” This is her sarcastic way of pretending to care for those who resent her success. She continues, however, to in a sense “flaunt” her success before the society that has always oppressed her. She claims that she has “gold mines” and that she laughs at the success she has found.
Stanza Six
You may shoot me with your words,
(…)
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
In this stanza, she lets society know that no matter what it does to oppress her, it will not succeed. The poet lets society know that it cannot prevail against her with words or looks. She proclaims that society cannot prevail against her even if it managed to have her killed because of its hatefulness. She claims that she will still “like air” rise.
Stanza Seven
Does my sexiness upset you?
(…)
At the meeting of my thighs?
The speaker continues her questioning of society. By this time in the poem, it becomes apparent that the speaker has placed society on trial and is now in the process of cross-examination. She knows the answers to these questions, but to ask them is to incriminate the offender. While she asks incriminating questions, she simultaneously reveals incredible self-confidence despite the oppression of society.
Stanza Eight
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
(…)
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
In this stanza, the speaker finally refers to the past- the reason that she is oppressed and resented to this day. She calls slavery “history’s shame” and she proclaims that she will not be held down by the past, even if it is “rooted in pain.”
Stanza Nine
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.
In the final stanza, the speaker reveals that she intends to leave behind all the effects of slavery and the history of oppression with the intent to rise above it. She claims that she will leave behind the “terror and fear” and that she will rise above the pain and the oppression “Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear.”
The speaker does not intend to allow the hatefulness of society or the pain of the past to stop her from becoming all that she ever dreamed of being. For this reason, she repeats three times, “I rise.”
Historical Context
The poem, ‘Still I Rise’ was published in Maya Angelou’s poetry collection, “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 appeared in an advertising campaign for the 50th anniversary of the United Negro College Fund in 1994.
In an interview in 1997, Angelou stated that she used the poem to sustain herself in hard times. According to her, not only the black but also the white used it similarly. This inspirational poem has some references that make readers look back at history. It reminds how black people were treated in the past. The speaker is one of them. She firmly speaks against the injustices against them and says no matter how much society tries to throttle her voice, she will rise like the phoenix.
FAQs
Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’ is told from the perspective of a first-person speaker. So, it’s a lyric poem.
Maya Angelou wrote this poem inspired by the struggle of black people. Her speaker represents the community and expresses their courage to fight back against the odds of time as well as society.
In this poem, Angelou’s speaker talks with the racist people. She refers to them as “you” and straightforwardly begins this poem. This “you” can also be a reference to those who try to subjugate others for their benefit.
The speaker of this piece represents the African American spirit. In this poem, Angelou makes it clear it does not matter how hard the discriminating minds try, the voice of her community can never be muted.
This poem communicates an important message to readers. It tells readers that remaining hopeful about one’s abilities and trusting in the inherent qualities are the best weapons to fight against racial discrimination, inequality, and injustice.
The phrase, “history’s shame” is a metaphor for slavery and racial discrimination.
Angelou’s poem presents a speaker who takes pride in her identity. She is courageous enough to talk about her body and her inherent qualities. Besides, she is an embodiment of the indomitable courage of black people.
Similar Poetry
Maya Angelou is best known for her empowering poems that seek to celebrate the female body and mind, specifically dedicated to Black women. The following poems are similar to Maya Angelou’s poem, ‘Still I Rise’.
- ‘Phenomenal Woman‘ by Maya Angelou – This poem defies the stereotypes that women often face in today’s world. It is filled with strength and determination.
- ‘Woman Work‘ by Maya Angelou – This poem celebrates the strength of women. It uses natural imagery to speak on this theme and various others.
- ‘Power‘ by Audre Lorde – Audre Lorde, one of the best-known 20th-century American poets, describes a real-life murder of a ten-year-old black boy and the court case concerning the killing in this poem. Explore more Audre Lorde poems.
- ‘Primer for Blacks‘ by Gwendolyn Brooks – This piece by Gwendolyn Brooks, one of the well-known African-American poets, speaks on the necessity of accepting one’s black identity and the future that will result from that acceptance. Read more Gwendolyn Brooks poems.
You can also read about the best poetry of African-American poets and these inspirational poems about hope.
