Summary Of Still I Rise By Maya Angelou

The poem “Still I rise” written by Maya Angelou tells of the struggles that minorities went through in the civil right movement. Maya Angelou has written this poem to help the audience understand a strong message within the poem. The civil rights movement was a nonviolent protest and a civil rejection against the rules to bring about a change. Maya angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild and the co-organized Cabaret for Freedom, in hopes to become apart of the civil rights and black nationalist movement (Finn and English). In the poem “Still I rise” Maya Angelou uses metaphor, diction and repetition to create the tone of self-confidence. The use of metaphor reveals the tone of self-confidence by demonstrating the goals of the civil rights

Angelou does that by questioning and specifying the blacks “broken” (l 13), “Bowed head” (l 14) and “lowered eyes” (l 14), by doing that we interpret the hatred and violence towards the black people. The broken, bowed head and lowered eyes is a sign of not being able to withstand the movement that is being progressed. Angelou wants us to realise the struggle that the black people have gone through. Moreover, the white people’s hatred of the black people have influenced them in a way, where they see the white people as brutal. “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes” (ll 20-21) is an implication for the amount of torment they’ve gone though. Angelou shows us that the whole society have been cut by the neglecting words and comments by white people. Angelou tries to show the tone of self-confidence through describing the misery the black society have gone

Angelou does that by using a varied word choice as for instance “sexiness” (l 25). She wants us to feel startled and amazed over how the black people “dance”(l 27) like “diamonds” (l 27), considering the tackle that they’ve overcome. She wants us to remind the bad memories and prove that she has become “the dream” and “the hope” of the terrible regime. Furthermore, Maya Angelou takes the past into an advantage by reminding the white society on their mistakes. The dream being the goal and the hope being the change. Angelou tries to show us the tone of self-confidence through displaying the achievements that the white people has accomplished.
The use of repetition paints and clarifies the tone of self-confidence by repeating the main message of “I’ll rise” (l 12). This shows us that the motive of the poem is crucial as it’s getting repeated in every stanza. Angelou represents the message by the overall goal, which is to overpower slavery. That also gives the tone of self-confidence a positive atmosphere, and by doing that we better understand the certainty and confidence of attaining the hope of rising. Angelou attempts to show the tone of self-confidence though repeating the main idea of the