Warner 3-1.1 Draft - Still I Rise by Maya Angelou from The...

“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou from The Complete Collected Poems
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 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 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.

Chris Warner
Mulligan English 102
November 11, 2009
Unit 3.1 Rough Draft 1
Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise”, uses a powerful combination of metaphors and
similes to express her pride as not only an African American but as a woman as well. This poem
is written as a way for Angelou to show her success to those who at the time still felt that blacks
should be uneducated and subservient to white people. In the conclusion of the poem, she pays
her respects to her ancestors who were forced into slavery yet never completely lost hope, saying
that she herself is that hope personified. This poem serves as a story of hope for the blacks, who
were still facing persecution and violence during the desegregation period in the United States.

In the poem’s first short stanza, Angelou makes the remark that “you may trod me
in the very dirt”. This line serves as a metaphor for dragging someone’s name through
the dirt, creating a visualization for the two lines before it saying that people will twist
her life into a lie in history. However, like the dust that comes from that trampling in the
dirt, she says she will once more rise. This is her way of expressing that not only will she
not be kept down, but she believes that her work and her dream will rise above the lies
that were written. This is just one example from what Angelou does through this poem;
she shows her ability to rise above all that is done to try and keep her down.