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Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou
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 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.
_________________________
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou is one of the most well-known works of poetry from the 20th century, with its fame aided in part by its inclusion in a long-running television commercial for the United Negro College Fund.
The piece is the title piece from Angelou's third volume of poetry, titled "And Still I Rise." From wiki:
And Still I Rise is author Maya Angelou's third volume of poetry, published by Random House in 1978. It was published during one of the most productive periods in Angelou's career; she had written three autobiographies and published two other volumes of poetry up to that point. Angelou considered herself a poet and a playwright, but was best known for her seven autobiographies, especially her first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, although her poetry has also been successful. She began, early in her writing career, alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry.
And Still I Rise is made up of 32 short poems, divided into three parts. The poems' themes focus on a hopeful determination to rise above difficulty and discouragement, and on many of the same topics as Angelou's autobiographies and previous volumes of poetry. Two of her most well-known and popular poems, "Phenomenal Woman" and "Still I Rise", are found in this volume. She speaks for her race and gender in many of the poems, and again emphasizes the strength and resiliency of her community. Like her previous volumes of poetry, the reviews of And Still I Rise were mixed.
The collection's title poem, "Still I Rise", was the center of an advertising campaign for the United Negro College Fund. Two others, "Phenomenal Woman" and "Just For a Time", were previously published in Cosmopolitan. "Phenomenal Woman" was one of Angelou's poems featured in the film Poetic Justice.
Still I Rise is written in from the perspective of a first-person Speaker in free verse. It contains nine stanzas, with an uneven number of lines in each. The first seven stanzas are quatrains, while the last two contain six lines and nine lines, respectively. The first seven stanzas follow a rhyme scheme of ABCB, while the eighth is ABABCC, and the ninth is ABABCCBBB. Angelou utilizes vivid imagery throughout, as well as numerous poetic techniques such as anaphora, alliteration, enjambment, and similes.
Stanza One
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.
The Speaker explains that her audience might be dishonest about her ("bitter, twisted lies.") It's not entirely clear whether she has a specific person, or group of people in mind, but it can be both. Narrowly this might have been a very personal poem for the Speaker, but broadly, I think we can assume she is addressing "society" in a broad sense. In any case ,the addressee is an antagonist. The third line takes this a step further, with the vivid image from the line "trod me in the very dirt" - which we can take either literally or figuratively. However, the theme of the poem is established in the vivid imagery of the 4th line (one of the best lines of poetry ever, in my opinion.) She says that she cannot be oppressed. She promises that she'll rise.
This stanza sets up the major themes of the rest of the work. This piece is about injustice, empowerment, and perseverance. The first stanza is key for the rest of the work, though, otherwise the Speaker might sound like she's boasting and being unreasonable in some of the following stanzas. From this beginning, though, we can interpret the rest of the work as a combination of setting the record straight and defiance.
Stanza Two
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.
Here the Speaker continues to address an unnamed antagonist, whom she assumes is upset over her success (or, alternatively, the outward expression of success.) Sassiness in line 5 is an interesting word choice, as it indicates that the problem is indeed less about the success directly, and more about the confidence and bravado that stem from that success. The Speaker is implicitly accusing the addressee of wanting her to be downtrodden.
Stanza Three
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Here the Speaker returns to the metaphor from the first stanza. She indicates that the fact she will rise is as certain as nature itself. Perhaps, it is in the Speaker's nature to rise. She is indicating here, again, that the antagonist to whom she is speaking can do nothing to prevent this.
Stanza Four
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
In this stanza, the Speaker asks the antagonist if he or she wanted a different demeanor from her. These questions harken back to her question from Stanza Two, re: sassiness. The Speaker is zeroing in on what she perceives to be the crux of the issue. Note that she is not focusing on her own material success, but the perceived desire to see her emotionally subdued. The Speaker believes the antagonist wants her to behave as though she is less than the antagonist, or perhaps less than what she actually is. When she repeats "I rise" she is indicating that she refuses to do so.
Stanza Five
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.
Building on her questions from the previous stanza, the Speaker wears the word "haughtiness" with pride, just as she seemed to wear "sassiness" proudly in the second stanza. Her issue is with the attitude of the antagonist, toward her own attitude.
This is a challenging stanza from the Speaker because the honest truth for most people is that they do not like haughtiness from anyone. Have you ever wanted to be around a sassy, haughty person, who acted as though they were rich? That's obnoxious. That said, the challenge here is whether the haughtiness is real, or whether the antagonist only perceives it to be real. Further, we are challenged to ask ourselves whether the haughtiness (assuming it is real) bothers us more than it ought due to who is acting in that manner.
The Speaker approaches the person she is addressing as though his or her feelings are personal (either to her individually, or perhaps to her as a representative of black people generally.)
Stanza Six
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.
The Speaker addresses the antagonist's demeanor. Her focus is on the attitude of her addressee, so she mentions words, the way the antagonist looks at her, and hatefulness (un-specifically.) She equates the demeanor of the antagonist with violence in each of the lines.
It is important in the work, for it to make sense, that we assume the honesty of the Speaker in that the antagonist being addressed is a villain. Otherwise, we are forced to wonder why the antagonist's demeanor is being held to account for the way he or she looks at, or talks about, someone who is self-admittedly acting in an openly sassy and haughty way.
"If you react to me, even passively, however badly I act, I will consider it violence" is a significant idea to convey. Again though, perhaps that is also part of the Speaker's point. Indeed, that type of command is undoubtedly how slaves were expected to (re)act to their owners and also how many black Americans were forced to interact with white Americans for decades after the Civil War ended.
The Speaker concludes the stanza again expressing her own inevitability. No matter how the antagonist reacts to her, she will rise.
Stanza Seven
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?
Let's start by not reading that one literally. Ouch.
The Speaker here addresses the antagonist, not just as a black person, but specifically as a black woman. She views her own sexuality - or, perhaps, access to her sexually - as highly valuable and something she possesses. We should rightly view anyone who does not feel the same way as a creep.
She asks questions throughout, including here, and assumes the answers while asking the question. In that regard, the questions are intended as a way to induce a sense of outrage, shame, or a sense of self-reflection and conviction.
Stanza Eight
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.
In this stanza, the Speaker broadens the scope of the piece and points out the reason for her feelings toward the antagonist. Here the poem takes on a more community-wide appeal, rather than an individual one. She refers to "history's shame" and "a past that's rooted in pain" and it is clear this refers to slavery and the decades of racism that followed the end of slavery. Here she makes clear that even in the face of the past, she will rise. This stanza shifts the mood of the piece from an individual overcoming an antagonist, toward a community overcoming an antagonist. The line, "I'm a black ocean" indicates that she now represents the wider community.
Stanza Nine
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.
Here the Speaker makes clear that she is leaving the past behind and rising above it. The poem ends, powerfully, with the repeated refrain of "I rise."
Do you like "Still I Rise"? Let me know what you think.
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