'Still I Rise' is an powerful and emotional poem composed by Afro-American poet Maya Angelou. It celebrates the strength, resilience, and courage of Black women, and encourages them to stand up and rise above the oppression and discrimination. The poet uses first person narrative: 'I' which means a black woman. 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.
The poem 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 there were brought up.
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 the 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.
Location/ Setting of the Poem
This poem is written against the backdrop of invasive racism, racial separation/isolation and prejudice in America during the 1950's and 1960's.
Structure and Form
'Still I Rise' is a poem with nine stanzas. It is separated into uneven sets of lines. The first seven stanzas contain four line, 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
The tone of the poem is anger and open defiance. In '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”. The major theme of the poem is black people should rise and defeat all forms of discrimination based on race.
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”.
Symbolism
Angelou's poem 'Still I Rise' is a symbolic poem. It has several symbols that represent 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 symbolize 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.
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