A Closer Look at “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an incredibly powerful and admirable woman who continues to inspire women through her writing and her life. “Still I Rise” is a poem that illustrates the struggles she had faced as a woman and the strength that she conjured to overcome such struggles.

Topic: “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

Grade Level: 10th Grade

Objectives: Utilize tools of literary analysis to understand the meaning of the text.

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 sins,

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 Questions:

1. What is the most common literary device you see being used throughout this poem? Why do you think the author chose to use this device so often?
2. Before you watched the video, what did you perceive the tone to be of the poem? Did this tone change or remain constant throughout the poem?
3. Who is the target audience of this poem? Who is the speaker?
4. What emotions did this poem evoke from you as the reader?
5. Maya Angelou was born in 1928 and this poem was published in 1978. What historical events may have influenced this poem?

Follow Up Activities: Choose one activity to complete. This will be your homework.

1. Choose a stanza from the poem with strong imagery and draw a picture, following the description. When completed, write the stanza on the back (or incorporate it into your picture) and hand it in.
2. Throughout this poem, the speaker is conveying a message of their struggles and overcoming them. Write a poem about something you have struggled with and overcame (or are currently overcoming). When completed, please hand it in.