Still I Rise Essay

Maya Angelou was an African American poet and civil rights activist a whose interest has been steadily climbing in the last few years. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, as a black poet, many people are reading her works and applying them to the situation today. Maya Angelou, as a black poet, addresses many social issues that many of us don’t want to discuss ourselves. In Still I Rise, she gives voice to the oppressed and put down, specifically those who are black. Caged Bird illustrates the differences between people who are free and those who aren 't, and Equality voices the demand for, obviously, equality. Alone is the revelation that no one can make it through life alone, and These Yet To Be United States shows the flaws in our country and our influence in the world. Some of these poems are very similar, others are different, but all have the distinct, amazing voice of Maya Angelou, who brings up the issues of oppression of minorities that anyone who loves poetry should read. Still I Rise carries a theme that almost all of her poems have, which is oppression of minorities. This is

The tone is dark and rich, using a free bird and a caged bird to metaphorically compare a free person and a oppressed person. Slightly different from Still I Rise, this poem is more focused on a comparison of those who are free and not oppressed to those who are not free and oppressed. The caged bird longs for freedom, but it is unknown, as seen in stanza 6, which says “The caged bird sings/with a fearful trill/of things unknown/but longed for still” This represents the people who are oppressed who desire true freedom, even though it is an unknown prospect to them. To be specific, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings speaks of how much those who are oppressed want their freedom. This theme is much the one in Still I Rise, which deals with the subject of people being