Still I Rise

“Still I Rise”

• Originally Published: 1978
• Form/Meter: Lyric poem; 9 stanzas  
• Literary Devices: Structural shifts, repetition, rhyme scheme, rhetorical questions, allusion, metaphor, and symbolism
• Central Concern:  “Still I Rise” examines oppressive social expectations and the need for self-respect and confidence to rise above them. This defiant poem is a weapon against injustice and prejudice through its focus on the strength of the spirit.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues:  Racism, oppression, and enslavement; colonialism; reference to female genitalia

Maya Angelou, Poet

• Bio: 1928-2014; born in St. Louis; childhood marred by trauma; mute for five years after sexual assault at age seven; writing and activism contributed to Civil Rights Movement and end of apartheid in South Africa; worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin; became famous with the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; read at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993; later in life was a lecturer, professor, poet, and writer until her death in 2014; honors include a Pulitzer Prize nomination (1971); Tony Award (1973); Grammy Award for Best Audio Book Narration (1994, 1996, 2003); Presidential Medal of Arts (2000); NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (2005, 2007, 2009); Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010); BET Honors Award for Literary Arts (2012); more than fifty honorary degrees; was the first African American woman depicted on a quarter (as part of the US Mint American Women quarters series)
• Other Works: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969); Gather Together in My Name (1974); Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976); The Heart of a Woman (1981); All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986); A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002); Mom & Me & Mom (2013)