STILL I RISE

BY: MAYA ANGELOU

REPORTERS
Ranjana Felerma b. Torres
Jordan M. Partido
OBTEC NL-2
 Maya Angelou's Life
Early Life Adulthood Career
1. Disastrous
1. Became mute for 5
1. Became a

separation years professional

2. Maya and Her

2. Found a love for
dancer
brother were sent to
literature 2. Moved to Cairo
live with grandma 3. Teacher convinced
3. Worked for Arab

3. Altered between
her to speak after 5
Observer
living with mom and
years 4. Continued to

grandma
study in Africa
 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 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.
 Analysis of Literary Devices in “Still I Rise”
1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such
as the sound of /i/ in “With your bitter, twisted lies”.
2. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five
sense. For example, “You may write me down in history”; “You may shoot me
with your words” and “I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide.”
3. Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical question is a question that is not to receive an
answer; it is just posed to make the point clear. Such as, “Does my sassiness
upset you?”; “Does my sexiness upset you?” and “Did you want to see me
broken?”
4. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same
line. For example, the sound of /l/ in “Welling and swelling I bear in the tide” and
the sound of /t/ in “Out of the huts of history’s shame”.
 Analysis of Literary Devices in “Still I Rise”
5. Simile: It is used to compare an object or person with something else to make
the meanings clear to the readers. There are a lot of similes used in this poem such
as, “But still, like dust, I’ll rise”; “Just like moons and like suns” and “’Cause I laugh
like I’ve got gold mines”.
6. Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of
some verses. The poet has repeated the words “You may” in the opening lines of
the poem to express her ideas. For example, “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.”
7. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought or clause that does not come to an end
at a line break and moves over the next line. For example, “You may trod me in the
very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
 STRUCTURE AND FORM
‘Still I Rise’ is a nine stanza poem that’s separated

into uneven sets of lines. The first seven stanzas

contain four lines, known as quatrains, stanzas 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
Still I Rise, playful and defiant, comical and angry,

self-assured and bitter. Ultimately, however, the

poem’s tone, as the work’s title suggests, is

triumphant.
 SUMMARY
‘Still I Rise‘ by Maya Angelou is an inspiring and

moving poem that celebrates self-love and self-

acceptance. 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.