How does Maya Angelou provoke the audience to feel the sense of equality? Maya Angelou captures the audience’s attention through her persuasive piece ‘Still I Rise’ which evidently addresses her implicit response to oppression and mistreatment, African- American women suffered for decades. This poem focuses on the conformity of Angelou to the oppressors on the behalf of all the black women and the loss of their self-respect and dignity in the process. Language techniques Various poetic devices were used in the poem to enhance the symbolism and intensity of the poem. Maya Angelou incorporates metaphor as she compares herself to ‘black ocean, leaping and wide’, which reinforces her struggles of going through a rough time, indicating that she felt unrestrained like the ocean but was capable of overcoming her difficulties comparing them to an image of a stormy and vast ocean. The poem features constant repetition of ‘still I rise’ that powerfully emphasizes on the …show more content…
Maya Angelou’s tone is overall assertive throughout the whole poem but it tends to become more powerful and stronger in the 6th stanza, creating a sense of empowerment, as she accuses her oppressors’ mistreatments and fights back by saying ‘But still, like air, I'll rise’. Sarcasm is clearly evident in the stanzas where Angelou incorporates rhetorical questions to accuse the people who humiliated and mistreated her and her self – confidence also reflects as she says ‘Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines, diggin' in my own back yard’. Her confidence portrays her as a strong person, as even though she suffered through a harsh world she still managed to laugh like she has ‘gold mines’. The tone was calm by the end of the poem which allowed Angelou to highlight the final conclusion to the audience much more
Maya Angelou’s poem is all about the theme of identity and prejudice. Some of the techniques Angelou uses are repetition of words, the words ‘I rise, I rise, I rise’ these words emphasise the strength and resolve of Angelou. The resilience of her personality is shown by repeating ‘I rise’ in contrast to the aggression of her opposition, Angelou is clearly emphasising that she will not be oppressed or dominated. Within the poem are the use of metaphors ‘Im a black ocean, leaping and wide’ this suggest that she is a black lady and that she
‘Still I Rise’ is a poem written by Maya Angelou, an African-American poet, and civil rights activist in the 1960s. She has struggled at many times in her life; when her parents divorced at the age of three, being raped by her mother’s boyfriend just after moving back to live with them, and refusing to speak for five years because she felt guilty for reporting the crime. The poem portrays an ironic response towards people who have persistently put her down, due to the fact that she is now overcoming this, and is most likely having a better current life than her last oppressors. The reader can comprehend Angelou’s strength to continuously fight her battles against subjugation towards her and others of the same race and gender. The basis of
Perhaps the reason that Maya’s poetry has had such a lasting impact on Americans is because of her poems such as ‘Caged Birds’ and ‘Still I Rise’ that demonstrate the issues that African – Americans faced, which she has done through the power of her words. She also challenges the readers with the theme of oppression that is carried out through her pomes as she felt very strongly about it by being surrounded by it her entire life. Maya Angelou has left an everlasting mark by influencing the society through her poems by inspiring others to persist towards their goals and dreams with strength and pride. Overall, Maya Angelou’s work can be attributed to the fact that her personal and cultural experiences of power have not been forgotten by overcoming adversity and oppression, which is clearly reflected in her inspiration body of work seen
She compares herself to a "black ocean, leaping and wide," an indication of the infinite power of her resilience. She closes the poem claiming that she is the "dream and the hope of the slave" followed by the thrice repeated phrase, "I rise." “Angelou captures the both the repression and the progress of the African American people over the course of history.” (Bouchard 1) I will use this essay in my final paper to analyze and determine the importance of simile in this poem and how it deeply affects the way in which the poem is meant to be
Still I Rise is a poem written by Maya Angelou. Through this poem, Angelou has used third person which allows the audience to relate to the social issue that she is introducing. Maya Angelou structured this poem in a certain way to be able to portray how much this issue meant to her emotionally and historically. The aim of this poem is to make audiences throughout the whole world aware of racism and discrimination. Maya wrote this piece to show that no matter how many times white people discriminate against blacks that they will always find the positives in everything while staying strong and
Because she has confidence and self belief in herself that she knows that she is better than all the haters and she will defeat all the negative things that goes her way and come out as a stronger person. I can compare this poem to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings because both of the those poems both have the same idea and that's self belief and overcoming adversity. You can see the same idea in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings where the bird is stuck in the caged with nothing to do and know where to go and no one to help him, but still has hope and self belief that it can break out of the caged and fly free with all the other birds. And in Still I Rise Maya Angelou is talking to the haters and all the negative people that have ever put her down and she is telling them no matter what people do to her she will overcome the adversity come out a better person because she has strong confidence in herself and knows if she puts her mind to it she can do anything and overcome it. This is how Maya Angelou shows self belief and overcoming adversity in both of these
“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, depicts the hidden theme of courage behind the various literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and repetition. Her poem was written in the presence of racism during the civil rights movement. In her words throughout the poem, she expresses her internal mindset to the reader.
In the unforgettable poem “Still I Rise”, written by the literary giant, Maya Angelou, the poem eloquently express the plight of the African American people and how they have risen above racism and adversity only to survive and flourish with dignity.
Maya Angelou's poems, collected in volumes such as Still I Rise and Phenomenal Women have received great critical acclaim. These poems briefly summarize the hardship Angelou has encountered. But once again she leaves the reader spellbound with her unwillingness to stay down and her overwhelming strenth. Angelou write in the poem Still I Rise:
Still I Rise, by the African American poet Maya Angelou, offers a different mixture of tones.(Assertive, Confident, Pride and Sarcasm)Ultimately, however, the poem’s tone, as the work’s title suggests, that the poem will be persuading the reader to never give up. The poem’s first word—“You”—is important. This is a poem clearly putting others in the place of others. It is not simply a private, lyric meditation. Much of its energy comes from its bold and strong feeling. The poem presents us with a black woman willing to speak up for herself, the poem is both highly political and highly personal. The author is finally responding to decades and even centuries of depression and mistreatment. Her tone, then, never sounds unintelligent or mean. Instead,
One of the first poems that demonstrates Angelou’s ability to speak for the disenfranchised in a bold way is the poem “Still I Rise.” The poem could be an anthem against slavery, or it could simply be an anthem for any person who feels as though he or she is being oppressed. In lines 1-4, the speaker seems to comment on behalf of black slaves when she says, “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.” These lines show that no matter what oppressors may have said or written about slaves, the black race would overcome with their indomitable spirit. Critic Sandra Cookson agrees with this statement by explaining that the poem is “about the survival of the black women despite every kind of humiliation…” and the poem “celebrates black women while simultaneously challenging the stereotypes to which America has subjected them since the days of slavery” Angelou’s sassy attitude that appeals to a more general audience is shown through the use of questions she asks of her oppressor in stanza two:
firstly, that's received towards her for being who she is as a woman and a black woman and states each time after explaining her ongoing troubles how she still rises through it all, for an example, she says, “Just like moons and like suns, With certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.” (9-12). Poem lines nine through twelve Maya Angelou is describing using metaphors how high she Rises through her troubles using like or as to compare suns and moons to describe how high she rises, also like how tides in an ocean splashes high, she describes how high she rises using the sun, moon and tides how high she rises. Maya rises high through the lies people
LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY: If the text had been written in a different time or place or language or for a different audience, how and why might it differ? Still I Rise by Maya Angelou is one of her most popular and contradictory poems. It seem to be addressing the issue of the role of minorities in particular descendants of African American origin. I will be analyzing her use of language in her time context in reference to a more present time period and the relativeness or difference to a different audience.
In the inspirational poem “Still I Rise” Maya Angelou portrays the story of a despondent individual who overcame obstacles of discrimination. In “Readings on Maya Angelou” she states “I write for the Black voice and any ear which can hear it.” During this time of infuriating violence of assault, murder and hatred toward black people their language still managed to develop. Her poem details the racism, criticism, and hostility towards African Americans. The attitude throughout the poem changes from comical to defiant then anger to sassiness towards the whites.
It uses nature to describe beautiful things and emotion to show how we respond to the events we see and feel. There is mystery in poetry so it inspires the reader to dig deeper and use their imagination and to feel and see from the heart.. We can reap by seeing the beauty in poetry. In this poem, the reader felt the anguish that Maya felt, her frustration, and her despair. The reader had an overlook into the emotions that the African Americans felt during their painful history. After all, a history book can tell you the information, but poetry tells you the emotions, of these real people not just a broadened group, Even though the scales of equality are slightly equal, the prejudice some hold against other races, women and minorities still exist in today’s biased society. The themes and perspectives in Maya Angelou’s poem equality remain timeless throughout generations, and still resonate with today’s cohort, because Racial discrimination is not a ongoing problem and still has not been