Maya Angelou Allusion

The world in which Maya Angelou grew up and lived throughout much of her life was one wrought with the ills that slavery and oppression had left upon it. Despite the turbulence that Angelou grew up in, she was an imminently successful woman. Of all her accomplishments, two stand out, her successful career as a poet and her legacy as a civil rights activist. Maya Angelou lived through the inequality and senseless oppression of the African American people. The poem, Still I Rise, was written by Maya Angelou in 1978. Within the lines of the poem, she declares that she refuses to allow the hatred society had towards African Americans to determine how successful she was going to be. Though slavery had long been abolished by the time she wrote it,

An allusion does not typically go into detail about what it refers to. It is just something said that the writer expects their readers to know about, spot it, and understand its’ importance to the text. Angelou begins her poem with an allusion. In the first stanza, lines 1 and 2 read, “You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies.” The choice to use the words “bitter” and “twisted” allude to the heinous things people of color had to endure. When she mentions the word “history,” readers rightfully get the impression that the neglect and abuse of African Americans has been going on for sometime. Another example of an allusion is found in stanza 8. It reads, “Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise”(Lines 29-32). With the use of this stanza she adverts to the arduous past her ancestors had. She refers to the “huts” that people of color must emerge out of. She uses the word “rooted” and when most people see that word they think of a tree. Readers can assume that in that specific line, she is trying to portray just how severely the concept of African American’s inadequacy is embedded into people’s

She ends the first stanza by saying, “But still, like dust, I’ll rise”(Line 4). Versions of that sentence are repeated through the entire poem. It is seen again in stanzas 3, 6, 8, and 9. To illustrate this, the poem ends with “I rise” repeated 3 times. Maya Angelou repeats the phrase to emphasize that she will not let her dreams be crushed by the senseless acts of society. By stating “I rise” over and over again she is informing her readers and oppressors that she refuses to fall victim to the hate. The readers see and understand the nastiness and viciousness that accompanies racism. However, Angelou also shows us that the human spirit can triumph and “rise” above even the most horrible aspects of life. The repeated line, “I rise,” is remarkably powerful. Readers are aware of the inhumanity Angelou and her people have faced, but we feel incredibly proud of her for rising above the cruelty of her