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
Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise addresses the issues of racism, feminism, hope, and liberty. She portrays these matters with the use of similes and metaphors. Firstly, the ‘trodding’ mentioned may be used to symbolize the oppression that the African Americans had to undergo due to segregation. Yet Maya ‘rises like dust’, whose course you cannot control, just like the ‘air’ she mentions later on. Both are ungraspable. With her use of the words ‘sassiness’, ‘haughtiness’, and ‘sexiness’, it becomes more apparent that the author is referring mainly to the female population, for the males are rarely characterized as such. When she refers to the ‘moons, suns, and tides’, one could infer that she is metaphorically referring to a woman’ s cycle, yet another factor showing the feminist theme in the poem. Also, she is comparing a females organs with diamonds, the most precious stone, when she states ‘diamonds in the meeting of my thighs’, which also shows that she believes that females are of the utmost importance. We can simply imagine Maya’s swagger with these words. The poet ‘walks like they’ve got oil wells in their living room’. This would mean money, and therefore power and pride, yet the author lacks these oil wells. This attitude of dignity remains throughout the poem. Another example of this confidence she has is when she mentions ‘gold mines digging in her own back yard’. She is ‘shot with words’, ‘cut with eyes’, and killed with hatefulness’, yet still she manages to rise, and continue to fight for her rights. We see her ‘rise through history’s shame…a past that’s rooted in pain’, and turning into ‘a black ocean, leaping and wide’. This comes to show that only more power is gained through difficult past experiences. She cannot be stopped now, just as the ‘tide’ cannot be stopped. The ‘wondrously clear daybreak’ shows optimism, a new beautiful, successful beginning. She is the ‘dream and hope of every slave’, as hope always dies last. Maya Angelou sends this poem out as a message to her people, to urge them and inspire them to rise just as she has.
( I may be having technical problems with this so I inserted the direct url just in case, below)
http://alikiin.podbean.com/mf/web/8feaw6/Irise.mp3
