‘Still I Rise’ Sample Essay

This great poetess Maya Angelou presents in ‘Still I Rise” the average black American woman who
rises like the phoenix each time she is bent by oppression. Here, she triumphantly asserts with
conviction how she continues to rise with renewed vigor. In stanza one, Maya Angelou hints at her
relationship with history and the body’s relationship with the earth. With an African American
background, she knows the importance and cruel irony of history. “His Story” is usually told from a
European angle.

She also correlates how the body can be put and driven into the ground, but eventually it
decomposes and humans turn into earth, like soil and dust. Maya Angelou tells how she is above
lies and oppression, and ‘like dust, I’ll rise. ‘ The speaker goes on to ask a rhetorical question to
the reader. Her attitude as a confident, sassy, African American woman is out of the norm for
society. A woman, let alone an African woman who has confidence in herself was a taboo idea.

She asks the reader if that upsets them, which at the time, probably did. She also mentions how
she carries herself, portraying it to the world as though she is rich, which for Maya Angelou she
wasn’t rich growing up. This just explains how one can act confident and be proud of themselves
even though they are not rich or perfect. In the third stanza Maya correlates her attitude with the
certainty of nature. She explains how nature and people’s hopes are certain facts that will never
end.

The sun will always rise just like the moons. The tides and people’s hopes will always rise that all
have a natural order in life. Yet, the speaker knows, ‘Still I’ll rise. ‘ The speaker describes her ability
to rise above anything that happens to her in this poem. She also uses apostrophe to address her
discourse, as well as give others the ability to share her voice. I believe this poem could be seen
as the speaker addressing someone, or as a sort of self-help/self confidence booster for others to
recite.

The speaker also asks questions throughout the poem, which give the readers the opportunity to
review their lives, contemplate their beliefs, and review the questions being asked of them. The
rhyme scheme remains the same as the beginning through the middle three stanzas. It seems like
an ABCB pattern that is repeated until the very end. The overall line by line analysis is fairly similar
for the three middle stanzas and its basic meaning is that is no matter what other do to hurt her, in
the past or future, she can rise above it.

She begins with a sort of taunting to the reader. She makes it feel as though she’s saying you
thought I couldn’t do it, but look at me now! She then asks if her pridefulness is offensive, and then
proceeds to say she doesn’t care if it is or not. Finally, she says that you can try and hurt her any
way that you want, but she’s still going to rise above it. There is a reference to roots and the
slavery era, and she uses her ancestors experience as a resource for her own strength.

She also says that she must preserve her ancestor’s dreams (who were slaves) for success in a
free world. In these last three stanzas she also uses questions to draw the reader in and require
them to examine their own lives. She says that she will rise above the pain and suffering that her
ancestors have experienced in order to fulfill their dreams of being granted the opportunity for
success in a world where she is free. She also wants to emphasize the fact that she is not faltering
from the pain and suffrage she and her ancestors have experienced, but she will continue to rise.

Tasks
1) Highlight any times where the writer uses an example from the text
2) Rephrase the sentence “She asks the reader if that upsets them, which at the time, probably
did.” to make it more formal
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3) What elements of context does the writer address?
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4) What has this essay done well?
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5) What does this essay need to improve?
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6) Rewrite 3 of the paragraphs above, editing them to include topic sentences, techniques and
explanation
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