Explication of the Poem Still I Rise
Still I Rise is Maya Angelou’s poem. Maya is a writer and an activist from America. The poem is a contention of resilience and loftiness of those suffering marginalization in the face of persecution. The poem summons emotions from the reader as it is emotional, and it calls for confrontation and other resistance behaviors. The poem rebukes the ideas of the people who see black Americans as slaves, but it remains romantic. The romantic element in the poem is what makes it more exciting and keeps on evoking the interests of the piece from its readers. Most importantly, Maya’s poetry has an overflowing vigor that inspires the readers to stand firm against every hardship and misfortunes. The speaker of Maya’s poem is a black-American female. The setting of the poem is during the period after the slavery of blacks in America.
Consequently, to create a precise meaning to her poem, Maya uses a wide range of themes and poetic literary devices, including slavery, resilience, racism, sexism, alliteration, anaphora, and enjambment.
Maya conveys the theme of slavery and oppression in her poem. Maya refers to history as humiliation in her poetry, and the speaker in her poem states that “You may write me in history with your bitter, twisted lies” (Angelou stanza 1). Maya is evidently, referring to history as shame and humiliation. Her comments on history as shameful refer to slavery institutions in the American society. She directs her disappointments in history to the frustrations and oppressions of the black slaves in the Americas. The poem Still I Rise elaborates a negative legacy of the American history that generates from slavery and oppression. Maya therefore criticizes the white oppressors of the black slaves while she encourages the liberated slaves to proudly arise above their frustrations with a significant fierceness.
Maya uses the resilience as a theme in her poem to urge her audience to be stronger as never before. Maya uses the concept of struggling and overcoming of hardships in her poem which is evident when the speaker says that “with the certainty of tides, just like hopes spring up high, still I rise” (Angelou stanza 3). The poem therefore focuses on resilience and resistance which replaces the concept of giving up. Consequently, the phrase I still rise is identifiable all through the poem. The phrase generates in a reader the feeling of defiant and resilient spirit. Consequently, the ceaseless repetition of the phrase I still rise is a sign of resilience and determination of the speaker.
Racism as a theme is also identifiable in the poem and it brings out a comprehensive understanding of misfortunes of the blacks. The oppressions and struggles of the speaker connect to legacy of racism in the American society. The speaker identifies herself as a black liberated slave when she says that “up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I am a black ocean, leaping and wide” (Angelou stanza 8). Maya connects her speaker to the past of slavery and racism. Similarly, the speaker refers to herself as I and she address someone that she keeps on calling you hence creating an illustration of racial segregation. However, Maya condemns any form of racism and she wishes for an American society that goes beyond the detrimental of racism.
Maya also uses the theme of sexism to describe extraordinary beauty of the black speaker. Just from the begin of the poem, the reader can tell the speaker is a female. The speaker describes herself as sexy woman with diamond like thighs (Angelou Stanza 7). Even though much of the metaphorical language focuses on the frustrations of black men and women, the sexism content of the poem describes a black woman as strong and empowered individual. The speaker criticizes frustrations against her race and the female gender. Additionally, she also condemns male prosecutor by enchanting in her sexiness.
In the contextual creation of the poem, Maya uses a wide range of poetic devices which includes alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of words of sounds at the beginning of words that are close together in a poem. An example of alliteration from Maya poem is “huts of history” (Angelou stanza 8). There is a repetition of the sound ‘h’ at the beginning of both words. Maya therefore use the poetic technique of alliteration to make her poem more interesting and easy to follow.
Maya also uses the poetic technique of anaphora to generate an interesting flow of the poem. Anaphora is the reoccurrence of a word or phrase in sentences, usually in a sequence. In stanza six, Maya repeats the word ‘you may’ in succession at the beginning of three sentences (Angelou stanza 6). The poetic device of anaphora in Maya’s poem creates a metaphoric flow of contents of the poem. The technique keeps the reader entertained hence creating the urge to read the poem over and over again.
Poetic technique of enjambment is also identifiable in the poem. Enjambment is the cutting off of lines in a poem before they come to an authentic end. Maya uses the poetic technique of enjambment in stanza eight in a repetitive manner (Angelou stanza 8). Enjambments technique pushes the reader to a next line of the poem more quickly. A reader has to move to next line to understand the comprehensive meaning of the sentence. Enjambment is therefore a technique that ensures that the reader keeps on reading the poem to the end.
In conclusion, the poem Still I Rise expounds on the concepts of racism and frustrations of blacks in the American society. To create a comprehensible understanding of the poem, Maya uses a wide range of themes and poetic devices in the contextual creation of the poem. Maya uses themes such as slavery, resilience, racism and sexism. Every theme in the poem creates a broader understanding of the meaning of the poem. Additionally, to create an interesting flow of the themes of the poem, Maya uses poetic devices such as alliteration, anaphora and enjambment. Maya’s poem therefore creates a broader understanding of racism and slavery as the major themes in the poem in a flowing pattern.
Work Cited
Angelou, Maya. The Complete Collected Poems. Virago Press Limited, 1995.