Poem Analysis 5: Still I Rise

“Still I Rise,” 

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,

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.

           About

Still I Rise is about how the person is constantly discriminated against for being who he/she is , but continues relentlessly towards his dream.

           Theme

"Discrimination only give hope"

The author gives clear examples of how the character will always get back up when he/she is brought down.

           Structure

There isn't any kind of clear rhyme scheme in this poem. It is, however, composed of 8 stanzas of mostly quatrains (sans last stanza).

           Poetic Devices

There are lots of examples of Similes in this poem comparing the character to various things that he rises like. Metaphors are used here in the same way.