Literary Analysis Of Poem In Maya Angelou's Still I Rise

I don’t always sit at the round table but when I do I like to discuss Literature, so pull up a chair and join me for the Literature round table. Good morning/ afternoon welcome, my name is Isabelle and “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou written in June 1978 is the poem for today. When I lost someone dear to me, I thought that I will never be able to get back back up again. This is how African American people felt in the 1950s – 1960s, due to the Civil Rights Movement disputes between the oppressed people of America and the oppressors that made the people that were being oppressed lives miserable and awful to live life itself. Even though Maya Angelou wrote the poem “Still I Rise” 10 years after the movement. This poem is the proof that after the ordeal Angelou and other African Americans went through during the civil rights movement, like being beaten, assaulted, or even arrested she and the rest of America rose up and survived. Through the use of tone, theme and mood, Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” shows that no matter how far people might push you down there is always a way up.

For example, in the forth stanza Angelou states “Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?”. These lines display the theme set through out the poem by showing the fight that the African American people of America had for their civil rights in the 1950s-1960s. Angelou shows this in her writing by asking rhetorical questions to the people who were the oppressors of the African American community on how they would like to see them, but she shows that they will no longer be treated like a dog or a door mate they will stand up and fight for what they believe was a fight that could be won by them. This relates to the central theme of the poem of no matter how far down people will push you down there will always be a way back up