Still I Rise

Topic: Maya Angelou

Grade Level: 12th Grade English

Objective: To understand Maya Angelou’s impact on not only the black community but to America as a whole.

“Still I Rise” is a poem that was written by Maya Angelou in 1978. The poem was created through her experience of being an African American woman while living in the United States of America. Maya Angelou tends to focus on the idea of survival through her writing, this specific poem being a perfect example. Her idea of salvation is a major concept in this poem. The poem is constantly addressing the mistreatment that black people in America experienced and continue to experience today. Angelou consistently responding to the idea of injustice with “And Still I Rise” is crucial to the poems foundation. Angelou’s ancestors were enslaved African Americans and she chose to represent their necessity for hope during the terrible times in her writing. The poem is an expression of liberation and defeat.

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

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.

Discussion:

• What does the concept of liberation mean for you?

• What impact does this poem have on America? What impact does it have on you?

• What poetic devices did Maya Angelou use throughout the poem to create the them?

• What does the structure of the poem have to do with the development of the theme?

•  What are the important historical events that had influence on this poem? Provide examples throughout the poem to support your answer.

• How do people rise above the struggles they face in life?

Activities:

• Write about a time you encountered something extremely difficult in your life and what you did to rise above it.