I Still Rise

Analysis of Maya Angelou’s poem I Still Rise

Out of 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

I rise

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise

The two stanzas above of Maya Angelou’s poem, I Still Rise, portrays sad and extremely unpleasant experiences from our country’s past; many have attempted to abandon the memoirs in which our nation lives in “shame.” Being an African American herself, Angelou feels the need to discuss her sentiments of the antiquitous but still relevant issue that led to one major war and continuous years of raids and violence. The thought of writing the poem might have come through experiences that gave Angelou the impression of such feelings are not completely resolved. Throughout the poem she uses literary terms such as similes and metaphors, rhetorical questions, 1st and 2nd point of view, repetition, parallelism, and figurative language to help the readers accumulate a mood Angelou wishes to reach. Incorporated with a common sensation, she tells her emotions from a poignant angle to include and develop meaningful opinions after true analyzation this poem.

Even though our country, equipped with a gloomy past, seems to have grown over the immature judgement of Blacks against Whites, Angelou hints of similar ambiences that might be felt in the everyday social life between hardworking regular Americans, but she stands with definite confidence inside her indicating that whatever the sentiments might be it will not make her feel inferior to anyone. In the third stanza strong figurative language and anaphora, the beginning part of the sentences is the same, are used when she implies, “You may shoot me with you words,/You...