Literature Unravelled: Still I rise

If an English Lit student says this is her favourite poem then…

Photo by uriel on Unsplash

It is no secret that I love Maya Angelou. She was a brilliant poet, author, activist, singer and performer. You may know her from her poetry reading at the Clinton inaugural ceremony or from when she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010.

What makes Angelou’s poetry special for me is how easy it is to understand. Unlike other poets, Angelou incorporates dense literary references and images into simple language that allows her work to be accessible to the masses.

My favourite poem, perhaps of all time, is ‘Still I rise’¹ which is probably her most famous piece of work. In this poem, Angelou describes succeeding despite adversity. Here is the poem for you to read:

Still I Rise by 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 backyard.

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.

One of the things I love about this poem is that the person she is speaking to is nameless. The direct address, ‘you’, allows Angelou to acknowledge her abusers though she speaks to them as equals. She does not have a ‘bowed head and lowered eyes,’ like they expected instead she is confident about her self-worth, asking them rhetorical questions that they cannot answer. By not giving her abusers a voice in the poem, Angelou is able to take back the power, and voice, her abusers stripped her of when they wrote ‘bitter, twisted lies’ about her.

Similarly, the use of celestial and natural imagery portrays Angelou to be larger than her abusers. The metaphor of the speaker as ‘a black ocean, leaping and wide, swelling and welling’ highlights how Angelou cannot be tamed no matter how others have tried. The use of ‘black’ also subverts the connotations of the colour, being evil and danger, for something that is powerful and worth having pride in.

There is always more to say about Angelou but these are just a couple of things that stand out to me.

There is a wonderful video of Angelou performing the poem that I have linked here.

As always let me know what you think. Don’t forget to like, leave a comment and share this post.

With Love,

Maxine Riike Brigue

(Also shoutout to me because I’m turning 21 on Wednesday!)

1. Angelou, Maya. Still I Rise The Poetry Foundation:[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise]