“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou from The Complete Collected PoemsYou may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut 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 wellsPumping 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 minesDiggin' in my own back yard.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 surpriseThat I dance like I've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs?Out of the huts of history's shameI riseUp from a past that's rooted in painI riseI'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that's wondrously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.I riseI riseI rise.Jessica HujberAnonymous English 105 MulliganNovember 7th, 2014Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise”, shows how even though society disparages her for being a woman and an African American, she has pride in who she is. She expresses her strengthand power of her sexuality through metaphors and similes throughout the poem. She presents herself the future that her ancestors who were enslaved couldn’t have dreamed of, and this poem is motivating to minorities and women everywhere where racism and sexism is are still prevalent. Angelou gives hope and shows how yes even though society may try to bring her down she’ll “[s]till…rise” which is repeated throughout the poem. Angelou also directly challenges the oppressors, who are White men, by referring to them as “you” throughout the poem. This direct address allows her to respond to the long tradition of exploiting, subjecting, and abjecting the African American and female body in Anglo-American culture and endeavor toreverse these stereotypes with positive imagery that inspires. The poem opens with the speaker asserting that as a result of who she is she will be remembered as low and worthless. In the first stanza, Angelou asserts “you may trod me in the very dirt” (Angelou, ln 3). The dirt not only represents physical degradation but also consists of the lies and hatred in which others will “write her down in history” (Angelou, ln 1). This metaphor helps the reader visualize how people will try to beat her down and ruin her good namefor being who she is, yet she will “Still rise”. No matter what is done to her she will still succeed in life. Rather than letting this hatred keep her down she uses it as fuel to come back up and riseabovetriumph over what is written about her as ethereal and lingering “dust” (Angelou, ln 4). Her succeeding and going above and beyond what anyone thought was possible for someone likeher is everywhere inrecurs throughout this poem. The repetition of “rise” evokes exactly what Angelou does, regardless of circumstance. Like the dust she will rise and even though she is the underdog, Angelou is a fighter and wants to improve the lives of her people. She is dust now, however, later in the poem she becomes air which is free of the contaminants of dust. It’s pure and independent of those who tried to push her down or ruin her name. The poet is a ray of hope for other minorities because regardless of how her people were represented throughout history, she proves that they too can still rise and improve the future for themselves. In the second stanza, Angelou asks “Does my sassiness upset you?/Are you beset with gloom?”(Angelou ll 5-6). She is taunting those who have tried to put her down for being a woman. Women, especially when enslaved, were nothing more than a commodity. Women did not have a say if a man wanted to rape her and this happened frequently with Black women. White men would take advantage because they knew that these women belonged to them as “property” in the first place because they purchased them. Rape was men abusing their power over women. Historically, sassiness was by no means a cherished quality in Black women especially as slaves for it would’ve been disrespectful to the owners. Therefore, sassiness tends to come with dangerous confidence and power in contradistinction to that painful past, which Angelou emphasizes in herself. That is why the oppressor will be “beset with gloom” (Angelou, ln 6) because she shows that no they have no control over her, which is what these men desire. Men desire to have power however they cannot have power over Angelou because of her confidence in her sexuality and being a Black woman. “'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/Pumping in my living room” (Angelou ll 7-8) is a metaphor about her confidence andsuggests that if you carry yourself as a woman of worth; you will be treated as such. It also encourages other women to also seek out financial autonomy from men to have socioeconomic liberty. When Angelou’s money and life is in her own hands, she has both socioeconomic and spiritual liberty. With money comes freedom, because only those who are free can even have the possibility of being wealthy. In the third stanza she then compares herself to nature and how “like the moons and suns with the certainty of the tides” (Angelou ll 9-10) she will “rise”. No matter what the situation or circumstances she will still become strong and successful. Like how it is inevitable that the moon and sun will rise, it is inevitable that Angelou will succeed. In stanzas four and five, Angelou continues to question the oppressors if they wanted to see her in a pitiful state like her ancestors who may have been “broken”. The speaker asks if she possessing power and not being afraid frightens them. The simile in the fourth stanza “Shoulders falling down like teardrops/Weakened by my soulful cries.”(Angelou ll 15-16) helps the audiencevisualize easily how her ancestors were completely broken by the abuse of power by the White men. It helps the reader see exactly how much sadness there was in their history by comparing their shoulders to teardrops and then