Maya Angelou “Still I Rise” Melissa Hernandez Naxhiely Flores Per.5

Background Maya Angelou was born on April 4 th, 1928 in St. Louis Missouri. Growing up, Angelou’s love for the art won her a scholarship in dancing and acting At the age of 14 she dropped out and became the first Afro- American woman to conduct San Francisco’s first cable car. She later went back to school to finish high school, but later gave birth to her first son. To support herself and her son, she worked as a waitress, but realized that her love was for dancing, performing, and poetry.

Genre and Form Inspirational Classical metrical: a poem that rhymes

#6. How does the language of the poem contribute to the meaning?  The language of the poem contributes to the meaning because it’s inspirational. Throughout the poem, the speaker talks about succeeding, even when times are hard. For example, she says “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you my kill me with your hatefulness, but still like air I’ll rise.” This statements shows her determination and strength, her refusal to be brought down.

#7.How is the poem organized? The poem is organized by a string of questions and powerful statements. Additionally, the poem is arranged with many repeating words and phrases, such as “I rise” and “You may.”

#8. Do patterns of rhyme and rhythm contribute to the meaning ad effect of the poem? Words such as: lies, rise, eyes, cries, hard, yard, surprise, thighs all contribute to the meaning of the poem because they make the poem easier to read. By using assonance in her poem, the “I” sound over and over again, we are more likely to empathize with the speaker- she is her own individual.

#3. What is the dramatic context of the poem? The poem takes place after slavery has ended. This poem reflects the end of slavery because she somehow explains in her poem that she went through becoming and being a slave.

#5. What motivates the speaker to speak now, in the tone he/she uses? Angelou speaks in a vigorous tone because she wants the person who wants to see her down know that there is nothing they can do to see her fall.

#9. What theme(s) does the poem contain? The theme the poem contains is to respect yourself. Self- respect is mentioned when she uses a phrase such as, “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”, which defines how someone could try to put her down but she will overcome it with her self-esteem.

#1. Who is talking? The person talking in this poem is a strong African American female. We can tell her gender and ethnicity because she describes herself as a “slave that overcame many obstacles.”

#2. To whom is the speaker talking to? In the poem the speaker is speaking to “you” which in my opinion I believe that “you” is the person that doesn’t want to see her do well in life.

#4. What happens during the poem? In the poem the speaker is trying to let her “hater” or the person who wants to see her down know that, no matter what, she will overcome any challenge… that there is nothing anyone can do that will make her fall.

#10. What is your initial response to the poem? Our initial response to Angelou’s poem is that she speaks about a strong woman that has gone thru slavery but has over come that obstacle and become somebody in life. This poem would give someone hope and not give up when wanting to accomplish something.

Not letting this happen! You may want to see me down You may want my dreams to fall You may want to see me broken But there is nothing you can do to make that happen I’m more then what you see I’m more than what you think