Analysis Of The Poem- Still I Rise By Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is one of the most read and renowned poetess. She has achieved everything that someone dreams of. But in the course of time she has also seen many problems in her lifetime, as she belongs to two of the major opressed classes, one is woman and other that she is a black woman, when we look at her life which was full of struggle but the way she fights from all these oppressor is matter of appreciation and inspiration for many, what she has to say to her people can be beautifully seen in this poem called- ‘Still i ride'

Lines of this lovely poem,

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 back yard.

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.

Analysis of technical aspects.

• 43 lines in total.

• 7 quatrains, 2 end stanza

• At the end 'i rise' in repetition.

• Initially rhyming schemes are- abcd

• But last two line's rhyming schemes are aacc and aabb

These lines are like warning to her haters, the one who never believed in her. She is continuously asking what offends you? Like she is provoking all her haters who had proved her earlier.

There is use of some harsh words like sassiness, sexiness and haughtiness here which is again showing her confidence in herself. It may look like vanity but the way it is used her totally justifies it.

Each line one can see, how oppressed she felt in her entire life and this poem is like a answer to them. The way she feels who is comfortable in her own skin. Who has seen a lot of things in her life. Her poem is just not meant to target the black community but everyone can co- relate with her poem. Maya Angelou is true warrior in all senses and this poem is saga of her uprise.

The last word ‘i rise' used as mantra, is showing her eagerness to rise..wherever she is now is indeed a very good condition but she don't want to stop here only. But to explore all possibility.