Still I Rise - Maya Angelou Case

In the poem “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou depicts true meaning, although with different intentions of implication. The general idea of the poem connects to many people all over the globe, but the poem is a response to the troubles in her life that she has faced. Maya Angelou alludes to specific issues that she has faced, but can be interpreted to apply to everyone. She essentially preaches life virtues, persistent attitude, and to never give up. Following the moral of self-respect, she teaches the audience that no matter what gets in your way, or if anything brings you down in the wrong direction, to always continue to rise up, block out the distractions, and lift your head high in pride. This theme may be very difficult to write about, considering someone whom has not faced much difficulty in life always being beaten down by others. However, Maya Angelou has come face-to-face with these troubles. Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her full-time occupation is an author and poet. She attended George Washington High School and California Labor School. Her most profound belief was and is to celebrate and appreciate life to the fullest extent. However, she struggled to fulfill these beliefs because she was of African American background, and she is aware of the status of cruelty, sexism, criticism, and racism that affects her.

Imagery is portrayed quite frequently throughout the poem to create a vivid picture of her reactions to criticism. In line 4: “But still, like dust, I’ll rise,” is a response to how she has been stomped on and driven into the ground until she is no more than mere dust, but still, like dust, she’ll rise out of the ground and float away from all the criticism and oppression. In lines 7-8, she responds to her rhetorical questions of “Does my sassiness upset you?” and “Why are you beset with gloom?” She does not literally mean that she is walking rich like she owns oil wells in her living room, but rather that she is rich in spirit. A picture is created of how a general rich

person would walk, with his/her head held high and disregarding anything else that is not worth their time. This connects to how she will hold her head high in defiance and disregard those who oppress her. Asking a few more rhetorical questions in the fourth stanza, an image is created how her shoulders sloop down like falling teardrops, as her oppressor would want her to look. “Bowed head and lowered eyes” gives a sense of shamefulness to the oppressed.

The tone is cleared throughout the whole poem. Since the theme and message of the point if self-respect and lifting yourself back up from the ground, the tone of the poem is of dignity, pride, firm belief, and defiance. Whenever the speaker asks a rhetorical question that would essentially anger the oppressor, it will invoke a sense of dignity and defiance. For example, in line