“Still I Rise”
Maya Angelou

I could tell right away from the poem’s description, imagery, and repetition that she was directing her thoughts towards someone who was trying to hurt her. “Still I Rise” and “I rise” were her saying over and over you can keep trying to put me down but I’m going to keep getting up. She portrays a strong woman with supreme attitude and stresses that the person didn’t like her how she was. She identifies that she has a strong attitude with words like “sassiness”, “haughtiness” and “sexiness”. Her self-described attitude can be compared to today’s reference of a “Diva”.
I am interested in her strength in an era where the woman’s movement was just beginning. She was so far ahead of her time and willing to talk about it. I can tell in her words that she has been brought down in the past by this person. She describes being shot down by their words, being glared at and having hate directed at her. She keeps telling the other person that I will not let you bring me down and every time you do, I will get stronger and stronger. She references that she creates waves like the moon and the sun, that she is challenging and the other person doesn’t like it. She felt the other person was trying to break her down and be dominating but she was a strong woman and would not let that happen. In the end, she says she is leaving all her negatives in the past and focusing on the future. She is a wanted person and she has pride.
Maya Angelou was an author and poet. Still I rise was published in 1978. It was Maya Angelou’s third volume of poetry. She had previously written three autobiographies along with her two volumes of poetry. “And Still I rise” is a collection of thirty-two short poems that are divided in three parts. It focuses on the ability to overcome adversity and the challenges that others inflict upon you. She uses these same themes in her autobiographies and other poems. She speaks of her race and gender in many of her writings including “And Still I Rise”. She has considered this to be her favorite poem. She had regularly quoted the poem and its reference to the strength and resilience of black people in interviews. Reviewer Ellen Lippmann calls “Still I Rise” a “proud, even defiant statement on behalf of all black people.” (Lippman, 1978, p. 17) As in many of her writings, “Still I Rise” has helped many people overcome hard times and give them a positive outlook on the future. Maya Angelou’s poems have been compared to other writer’s poems from Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Sterling Brown. “Still I Rise” particularly can be compared to Sterling Brown’s poem “Strong Men”. (Hagen, 1997)
Maya Angelou has struggled since birth. At the age of three, she and her four-year-old brother were sent by train alone to live with her paternal grandmother after her parent’s marriage ended. (Gillespie, 2008, p.21) Four years later, her father picked them up without warning and sent them back to live with their mother. Angelou was raped and sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of eight. (Gillespie, 2008, p.21) The man was found guilty of the offense but sentenced to only one day in jail but was subsequently murdered four days after his release. She was overcome with grief that she was responsible for his death and didn’t speak for five years. (Braxton, 1999, p. 121) She was then sent back to live with her grandmother. At the age of 17, she gave birth to her son, Clyde. In 1951, Maya Angelou married a white man against her mother’s wishes. (Gillespie, 2008, p.22) Because of these struggles, her writing depicts her ability to overcome hard times and gather the strength to look past them. She understands that others, especially the black community, have struggled through hardships and writes to inspire them to show their pride and persevere. “Still I Rise” uses a couple of themes from the Postmodern Period, particularly Individualism and Racism. Literary authors in the postmodern era utilize an individualistic approach to their writing. They utilize their own experiences and cultures. In these writings, specifically “Still I rise”, many interpretations can be made. Is Angelou writing about her own experiences or possibly the hardships of the African American culture? Maya Angelou discusses the struggles that black people had in the past and that they would look beyond it and rise above it with great pride. Ms. Angelou describes that black people were treated poorly in the past and similarly in the present. She talked about how people were always negative, trying to beat down the heart and soul of black people. She finishes off the poem by saying she is going to leave those things in the past and only look at what the future will bring. She is stronger and better because of the struggles that the past had created. Maya Angelou’s words still resonate in today’s society, where violence against woman and racial inequalities are hot topics. “Still I Rise” emphasizes the need to fight against oppression and racial tensions.
Although I read the poem differently than was described by reviewers, the parallels are quite similar. I read the poem as her description of her own struggles from other influences and how she endured those challenges. I believed she described herself as strong woman who was going to rise above any of the challenges that others threw at her. Others saw the poem as a challenge of oppression to the African American race. (Simmons, 2012, online)
I also believe her descriptions of her attitude, her “sassiness”, her “walking like I’ve got oil wells pumping in my living room” and her “sexiness” are common descriptions of today’s slang definition of diva. A diva, in today’s terms, is a goddess or queen, one who acts overly entitled. She wrote the poem in a time where a woman was looked down upon in voicing who they are as an individual. One could say she broke the barrier and is a key figure in starting the woman’s movement.

Reference List:
Simmons, John Literary Analysis of “Still I rise” retrieved from http://jhsimmons.weebly.com/literary-analysis.html
Hagen, Lyman B. (1997). Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Maya Angelou. Lanham, Maryland: University Press. ISBN 978-0-7618-0621-9
Lippmann, Ellen (November 1978). "Review of And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou". School Library Journal (25): 108. In Bloom, p. 17
Braxton, Joanne M. (1999). Maya Angelou's I Know why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 9780195116076
"Maya Angelou". , Gillespie, Marcia, (2008). SwissEduc.com. December 17, 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-12-17.