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
my voice message
The poem "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou is a shout out to all African Americans that felt oppressed by the white Americans at the time. Today I will analyse the poem.
In the first stanza she says that the white man has manipulated history to their side of the story, they changed it with bitter, twisted lies. She then goes on to show us the main concept of the whole poem which is basically her saying one thing about what they do to her and how she rises.
In the second stanza she shows that even though the white man always put her down, she always is proud and has the sassiness and happiness without really having anything. The whole third stanza is a metaphor for a woman's cycle (Just like moons and like suns). White men always puts them down, wants to see them broken. This whole stanza shows the pain and suffering of an African American at the time. I also think that "Shoulders falling down like teardrops" has some connection with African Americans getting whipped by the white man. Her attitude never changed even though everybody is trying to break her down, she still has her attitude intact. The last part of the 5th stanza is repetition to the second one.
The 6th stanza describes what the white man did to break her down but then she ends it with hope like all of her stanzas. In the next one she calls out the white woman for being jealous of her sexiness and her ability to dance. In the most powerful stanza, the last, she goes into more depth about all of the history and pain they suffered but always overcome with hope. The repetition of the word I raise shows us that this poem is to givestrength to the people it affects.
