Poetic License

                     

"Still I Rise" is a poem by the African American Maya Angelou. This poem is told from the point of view of a first-person narrator. So, it's a lyric poem. In this poem, Angelou focuses and rejects the attempts of her oppressors to stop her from achieving her full potential. 

• In "Still I Rise," the narrator mentions that her oppressors will "lie" in the history books to humiliate her and her fellow Black people.
• As the poem develops, the speaker asserts that she is self-confident in her value and taunts her oppressors for being intimidated by her self-confidence.
• The narrator defines herself as "the hope of the slave," echoing the strength and resilience of Black people throughout history, who have and will continue to "rise."

This poem is filled with vivid imagery. For example, through the line, "But still, like dust, I'll rise." So, here the idea of "dust" allows the speaker makes her point. According to her, none can handle the dust when the revolutionary wind comes. Likewise, she will rise like dust particles and blind those who trod her before.

The following stanzas contain some more images. For example, readers might bring up the idea of ​​oil wells that pump oil. The third stanza has images of the moon, the sun, and the tides. In this stanza, the author associates rising tides with "hope." There is an image of a very distraught black individual in the poem. This image illustrates how they were tortured and silenced by the illegal fist. Angelou uses the imagery of "gold mines" and "diamonds" to enhance the irony of this piece. Lastly, the "black ocean" reveals how strong the speaker and her people are. Its greatness is like that of the immensity of the ocean.

The main themes in "Still I Rise" are the inevitability of truth, overcoming oppression, and the power of Black women. This poem offers an intriguing mixture of tones: self-assured and bitter, comical and angry, playful and defiant. Ultimately, however, the poem's tone, as the work's title suggests, is triumphant.

In the table that you will see below, I want to show examples in which Angelou applies figurative language as a simile, metaphor, and personification during the poem in some of the poem's lines.

 

Lines	Line in poetry	Figurative Language
2	With your bitter, twisted lies,	Metaphor
3	You may trod me in the very dirt	Metaphor
4	But still, like dust, I'll rise.	Simile
7	'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells	Simile
9	Just like moons and like suns,	Simile
15	Did you want to see me broken?	Simile
19	'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines	Simile
21	you may shoot me with your words,	Metaphor
22	You may cut me with your eyes,	Metaphor
23	You may kill me with your hatefulness,	Personification
24	But still, like air, I'll rise.	Simile
31	Up from a past that's rooted in pain	Metaphor
32	I rise	Metaphor
33	I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,	Metaphor
40	I am the dream and the hope of the slave.	Metaphor