Poem
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.
Inspiration and Background
Maya Angelou was an American author, poet, actress, screenwriter and civil rights activist. This poem is taken from a 1978 collection of poetry entitled, “And Still I Rise” which explores themes of confidence, strength, resilience and the courage of Black women. It can also be read as a critique of racism and how marginalized people respond with dignity in the face of oppression. The poem is a kind of protest poem which is defiant as well as celebratory, ‘Still I Rise’ is about the power of the human spirit to overcome discrimination and hardship, with Angelou specifically reflecting her attitudes as a black American woman.
SUBJECT MATTER
The speaker addresses an undefined audience challenging the fact that, even though “they” have the power to shape how history remembers them, they will still rise above it all like dust rises from the ground. The speaker then asks the listener a series of rhetorical questions, such as whether her confident attitude offends them and why they are so miserable. The speaker suggests it is the confident way she walks, and as she is like the sun and the moon, she will always keep rising above hurtful words, deeds and hatred. The speaker suggests that the listener wants to see her crushed and broken, but although they may attack her with words, or the way they look at her, she will continue to rise. She will rise out of the shame of slavery and a painful past, leaving behind the terror and fear and rise up to honour her ancestors’ legacy. Still I Rise’ is an empowering poem about the struggle to overcome prejudice and injustice. It is one of Maya Angelou’s most famous and popular poems. When read by victims of wrongdoing, the poem becomes a kind of anthem, a beacon of hope for the oppressed and downtrodden. It is a reminder of the abuses of power by those who sit in government, the judiciary, the military, and the police force. For members of the public, it sends out a clear, repeated message of hope. No matter the circumstances, there must always be hope to cling to.
STANZA ANALYSIS
Beginning with a pointed and direct reference to ‘you’, Angelou opens her poem with a neat piece of wordplay: ‘write down in history’ means both ‘write down the history of me and my people’ but also ‘write me down, i.e., downplay me and my achievements by lying about me’. Although people (Europeans or imperialists) may seek to belittle/oppress her and other African-Americans, Angelou asserts that, even if she is trodden into the dirt, like the dust rising from someone’s boot, she, too, will rise and will not be defeated. In the second stanza, Angelou poses a direct question. Is her sexuality, her confidence in herself and her own attractiveness, upsetting? She walks with confidence, as if she is as rich as an oil baron. And (moving to the third stanza) like the sun and the moon which rise every day and night, and like our hopes for a brighter future which persist despite hard times, she will continue to rise, too. The moon image suggests the tides of the sea (which are a result of the moon’s gravitational pull on the earth’s seas), which also go out but come in again, as regular and dependable as the sunrise and sunset every day. In the fourth stanza, more questions follow: Angelou accuses her addressee of wanting to see her spirit broken. But in the fifth stanza, she asserts her ‘haughtiness’: she holds her head high, rather than bowing it in submission or defeat. She laughs with the confidence and self-assurance of someone who is rich beyond their wildest dreams, with gold mines in their back yard. The sixth stanza sees Angelou asserting her defiance: cruel words and unkind looks, and ‘hatefulness’ (a word which flickers with the dual meaning of both ‘detestable attitudes’ and ‘hatred for others’), may be slung at her and other black people, but they will rise ‘like air’: naturally and lightly. The last stanzas revisits the ‘sassiness’ mentioned in the second stanza, only this time it has been transformed into out-and-out sexiness. Angelou offers another variation on the confident swagger mentioned in earlier stanzas: this time, she looks as though she has diamonds at the ‘meeting’ of her ‘thighs’. The bodily or sexual and the wealthy and material have finally met and become one. ‘Still I Rise’ concludes by departing from the quatrain form used up until this point, instead ending with fifteen lines which see the refrain ‘I rise’ repeated multiple times. Angelou asserts that she, and others, rise from the ‘huts of history’s shame’ at how it has treated black people over the centuries. She is a ‘black ocean’, powerful, energetic, and vast, and she can bear and weather the tidal fluctuations that life throws at her. Indeed, she is leaving behind those dark times of ‘terror and fear’ and a new dawn is beginning, which is brighter and more hopeful. Her ancestors, who had to endure slave labour and then, even once freed, generations of racial prejudice, dreamed of such a time, and now it is here: their ‘gift’ to her is in establishing the dream, which has now been realised, thanks to the struggles and fights of the Civil Rights campaigners like Angelou herself.
THEMES IN THE POEM
- Self-Empowerment and Confidence
- Identity and Heritage
- Racism and Oppression
- Feminism and Woman Empowerment
- Hope and Triumph
- The Enduring Nature of Black Resilience and Perseverance
CREDIT TO H.K OCRAN/ LiTTROVE,Non-African