Still I Rise
by
Maya Angelou

Subject: Literature-in-English

Theme: Literature in English

Topic: Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Sub Topic: Background and setting of the poet and poem

Date: dd/mm/yyyy

Class: S.S 2

Average Age: 15 years and above

Duration: 35 Minutes

No of Learners: 40

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Mention the background of the Poet.

2. Identify the setting of the Poem.

3. Recite the poem.

4. Highlight the subject matter/theme employed in by the Poet.

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”.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Overall, "Still I Rise" is a testament to the human spirit triumph over oppression, making it a timeless anthem of empowermemt and hope.

5. Explain Poetic Devices/Techniques, Imaginery/Symbolism used in the poem.

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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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”.

6. Analysis the Poem Stanza by Stanza.

1. In stanza one, 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.

2. In stanza two, Maya Angelou 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.

3. In stanza three, 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.

4. In stanza four, 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.

5. In stanza five, 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.

6. In stanza six, 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.

7. In stanza seven, 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.

8. In stanza eight, 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.”

9. In the final stanza, Maya Angelou 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.”

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