STILL I RISE
Answer the following questions in a sentence
or two
1) The writer addresses “You” several times
in the poem. Who is meant by “You”?
Ans: 'You' in the
poem refers to the oppressive white colonialists and plantation owners who felt
that the African-Americans are inferior to them and treated them as
slaves.
2) What are the symbols moons, suns and other
natural phenomena suggest?
Ans: The use of such similes by the Poet is to show that
the inner strength of the slaves cannot be destroyed by the oppression and also
the uprising of the slaves and the hopes within them are as certain as the fact
that the moon is rising and the sun is rising in the sky.
3) What does the phrase “the huts of
history’s shame’ mean?
Ans: This line indicates how the history of a certain event
is partial to a certain sector of society. The history of oppression paints a
picture of shame and humiliation for the slaves and the Poet shows that they
will rise from such an absurd history and paint their own picture for the
future generation.
4) What are the inherited “gifts” that the
writer brings with her?
Ans: The 'gifts' refers to the freedom that the Poet has
got due to the struggles of her ancestors. These 'gifts' will be used by the
Poet and her future generation to help her people reach greater heights.
5) What is the implication of Still I Rise?
Ans: Still I Rise” is primarily about self-respect and confidence. In
the poem, Angelou reveals how she will overcome anything through her
self-esteem. She shows how nothing can get her down. She will rise to any occasion and nothing,
not even her skin color, will hold her back
6) What does the phrase “You may kill me with
your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.”
Ans: "You may
shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes, You may
kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise." She
is saying that
you can talk about
her, but words won't
kill her. She won't rise because of discrimination.
Explain the following statements with reference
to their context.
1) You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Ans: Poem: Still I
Rise
Poet: Maya Angelou
Context: The poem
itself is a direct response to this kind of oppressive writing. The speaker
transforms writing, one of the most important means of domination, into an
instrument of liberation. The poem does not begin by emphasizing physical
subjugation or literal violence. Instead, it begins by emphasizing the ways the
wrong kinds of writing can imprison the minds of both oppressors and the
oppressed. First and foremost, those who would help liberate Blacks must first
liberate their minds and challenge the thinking of their
oppressors. Only in line three do we reach the first reference to actual
physical oppression (“You may trod me in the very dirt”), but the phrasing here
seems more metaphorical than literal. Metaphorically, to tread another person
into the dirt is to treat that person with enormous disrespect and almost
shocking violence. Yet no sooner does the speaker imagine being abused in this
way than she immediately responds, “But still, like dust, I’ll rise”. The
reference to “dust” is variously effective. It implies that something normally
seen as negative can instead be seen as positive. It implies that something
normally seen as merely bothersome can actually possess a kind of resilience
and strength. It implies that something normally considered easy to control
can, simply because of its pervasiveness and volume, create real problems for
anyone who would seek to control it and suppress it. This would be a less
effective poem if its tone were entirely angry and bitter. Instead, the speaker
injects plenty of sarcastic humor into the work.
2) Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
Ans: Poem: Still I
Rise
Poet: Maya Angelou
Context: It is as if the speaker, although having suffered from
oppression, still possesses enough self-respect to mock and tease her
oppressors. It is as if, despite their power, she doesn’t take them entirely
seriously. Confident and self-assured, she can ridicule them in exaggeratedly
humorous ways. She belittles them through her wit as they have belittled her
and her people by much cruder methods. The speaker’s cleverness shows that her
own mind is free, just as she seeks to free the minds of other Blacks, partly
through her own “sassiness” .The poem is full of witty taunting. It cleverly
degrades those who have earlier degraded Blacks.
3) Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Ans: Poem: Still I
Rise
Poet: Maya Angelou
Context: The weather
changes, tides change and the spring of hope keep flowing. Like this spring, I
rise. These lines are beautiful like a dream for they are full of imagery
sourced from nature. “Hopes springing high” indicates the indomitable energy
found inside those hearts that have born slavery for centuries and still never
lost their battle against hatred, exploitation and oppression.
4) You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Ans: Poem: Still I
Rise
Poet: Maya Angelou
Context: What keeps a person from bowing before hatred and
oppression. It is sheer determination. If you want to use your hateful words to
destroy me you can. Your hateful look cannot kill me or stop me because they
will give me more energy to rise. While slavery was abolished long ago, discrimination
has not been yet fully eliminated from the US society. However, discrimination
and abuse will never extinguish hope.
5) Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Ans: Poem: Still I
Rise
Poet: Maya Angelou
Context: Those years of slavery were like a night of fear and
darkness. They have made past it into a day of glory where freedom awaits them.
This is a gift from the poet’s ancestors, the fruit of their struggles. The new
generation is the culmination of their dreams and will struggle harder than
them to take their race to new heights. This rise is unstoppable.
Answer the following questions in 300 words.
1) Discuss the poem is about the rebellion of
black slaves against the white masters.
Ans: Maya Angelou’s work often focused on the
experience of being a black woman in America. Read within that context, “Still
I Rise” becomes more than a call for strength in the face of hardship: it’s
also a modern-day ode to the power and beauty of blackness. Although the
speaker’s racist society believes that black people’s lives and bodies are less
worthy than others', the speaker herself vehemently rejects that idea. The
speaker asserts her full humanity and also associates her body with symbols of
value, such as “oil wells,” “gold mines,” and “diamonds.” These comparisons
implicitly critique racist and sexist assumptions of beauty and power as being
tied only to whiteness and masculinity, respectively. Instead, the poem becomes
an ode to black womanhood. In a racist world, the poem implies, society
continuously denies the full humanity of black people. Society wishes to the
speaker were “broken,” “cut,” or even “killed.” Rather than valuing the lives
and humanity of black people, society actively hopes to harm and destroy them.
Society’s “shameful” history of slavery was of course the ultimate
dehumanization; black people who were enslaved experienced unimaginable “pain”
and “nights of terror and fear” as any agency over their own lives and bodies
was taken away from them. The speaker references this history to illustrate how
little society has historically valued black life.
Nevertheless, the
speaker insists on the inherent humanity, value, power, and beauty of her black
body. The speaker rises “like dust,” a subtle biblical allusion: in the Bible, God created humans from
“dust,” and humans return to “dust” once they die. By stating that she is “like
dust,” the speaker asserts her full humanity; she is as much a creation of God
as anyone else. The speaker also walks as though she possesses “oil wells,”
laughs as though she owns “gold mines,” and dances as though she has “diamonds”
suggestively placed between her thighs. These symbols are all objects of great
value. Oil wells provide their owners with wealth and, consequently, power. Gold
and diamonds are expensive and prized for their beauty. Thus, the speaker
assigns value to her body and grants it power and beauty regardless of what
society says. In particular, the placement of the diamonds speaks specifically
to the speaker’s womanhood. (The reference also feels distinctly
autobiographical as Angelou once worked as a nightclub dancer.) Taken as a
whole, the lines declare and reclaim the speaker’s body and power in her
femininity as a black woman. The speaker also insists that she is a "black
ocean," a vast, powerful, and unstoppable figure. The speaker thus doesn't
assert her strength in spite of her blackness, but rather insists that her
strength comes from her identity as a black person. And by
subverting readers’ expectations of an ode and who or what it should praise,
Angelou challenges the assumed white gaze of her readership. Humanity, power,
and beauty, Angelou declares, are abundant in blackness and black womanhood.
2) How does the poet challenge her
oppressors?
Or
How Maya protests in her poem against whites?
Ans: Still I
Rise" is a poem by Maya Angelou in which the speaker addresses and
dismisses the efforts of her oppressors to prevent her from achieving her full
potential. The speaker notes that her oppressors will
"lie" in the history books in an effort to degrade her and her fellow
Black people. As the poem progresses, the speaker asserts that she is confident
in her worth, and taunts her oppressors for being intimidated by her
confidence. The speaker describes herself as "the hope of the slave,"
echoing the strength and resilience of Black people throughout history, who
have and will continue to "rise." One
of the central themes in this poem is that of oppression. The poet speaks of
the legacy of oppression, making references to the suffering of black people
throughout history. She condemns the oppressors—ostensibly, white people—with
great fierceness. She will make her “slave” ancestors proud by rising above
their suffering and defying the oppressors.
The
story of racial legacy is that of struggle and overcoming. This poem covers
both those ideas. The poet talks about the struggle borne out of oppression, as
well as the overcoming. Rather than giving up, the poet demonstrates a
resilient, defiant spirit. The frequent repetition of “I’ll rise” illustrates the
poet’s determination to remain resilient.
The
oppression faced by the speaker is linked to the history of racism. The fact
that the speaker calls herself a "black ocean" is significant because
this is an overt reference to race, showing that the binary between
"you" and "I" in the poem is linked to a racial
distinction. She condemns racism and speaks about a universal idea—overcoming
prejudice of any kind—that transcends geographical boundaries or the color of
one’s skin.
3) Critically appreciate the poem “Still I
Rise.”
Ans: In the first
stanza of "Still I Rise," Maya Angelou uses the dirt on the ground to symbolize the downtrodden and
unvalued members of society, only to counter this with the symbol of dust,
which rises from the ground when trodden underfoot. The rest of the poem is
filled with contrasting symbols of prosperity and oppression. The
pumping oil wells to which the speaker refers in the next stanza are a symbol
of wealth and self sufficiency, and the same is true of the gold mines in her
backyard in stanza five. The diamonds between her thighs at the end of the
seventh stanza add sexual confidence to this combination. The moon, the sun,
and the tides in the third stanza act as symbols of the certainty and
inexorability of her rise, comparing it to a law of nature. Later, in stanza
six, the same symbolism is applied to air. There are also symbols of the
oppression that the speaker has surmounted and continues to overcome. Bowed
shoulders are described as falling like teardrops, symbolizing misery and
defeat. The huts in which her people used to live symbolize "history's
shame." At length, she becomes the free, independent person that her
ancestors dreamed of being, symbolized by a "black ocean," an
unstoppable and uncontrollable natural force.
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1) The writer addresses ‘You’
several times in the poem. Who is meant by ‘You’, and how can we tell?’
Ans: The poem is about the rebellion of black
slaves against the white masters. Thus, the 'You' in the poem refers to the
oppressive white colonialists and plantation owners who felt that the
African-Americans are inferior to them and treated them as slaves. The angry
nature of the poem and the lines 'You may write me down in history with your
bitter, twisted lies, you may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust,
I'll rise.' are indicative of this idea.
2) ‘I’ve got oil wells,’ ‘I’ve got gold
mines,’ ‘I’ve got diamonds.’ What is the effect of repetition here and the
particular images used?
Ans: These
lines illustrate that the Poet is rebellious and happy even in the face of
adversity. The imagery used is of significance as these are the commodities that
attracted the white colonialists to their lands.
3) In some of the other
similes the speaker compares herself to moons, suns and other natural
phenomena. What do you think she means to convey by such images?
Ans: The use of such similes by the Poet is to
show that the inner strength of the slaves cannot be destroyed by the
oppression and also the uprising of the slaves and the hopes within them are as
certain as the fact that the moon is rising and the sun is rising in the sky.
4) What do you understand by
‘the huts of history’s shame’?
Ans: This line indicates how the history of a
certain event is partial to a certain sector of society. The history of
oppression paints a picture of shame and humiliation for the slaves and the
Poet shows that they will rise from such an absurd history and paint their own
picture for the future generation.
5) What are the inherited ‘gifts’ that
the writer brings with her?
Ans: The 'gifts' refers to the freedom that
the Poet has got due to the struggles of her ancestors. These 'gifts' will be
used by the Poet and her future generation to help her people reach greater
heights.
10) What are the attitudes and feelings in the poem?
Ans: Emotions and feelings of the speaker: The speaker is angry
and bold, courageous, daring and determined.
22) A reviewer once
said that this poem was only impactful when the poet read it aloud. Why might
this be the case?
Ans: The poem is like a speech or a personal
declaration of power. When it is read, the reader naturally concentrates on the
rhyme scheme, the similes, and the general rhythm of the words on the page.
Although we do see a story to the poem, we do not discern more power in one
stanza compared to another. However, when Maya Angelou reads the poem aloud,
she injects more power into it by changing the tone and the mood in her
intonation and voice. Her voice gives additional power to the affirmation
"I rise." Spoken aloud, the poem is more determined and more defiant.
It becomes less a conversation and more a proclamation. It becomes a kind of
prayer, meditation, and proclamation all at once.
23) Who do you think
the poet is addressing and how do her questions change as the poem progresses?
Ans: The poem begins with the speaker asking
questions of those who would still like to see her oppressed and who are not
embracing equality between the races or the genders. She is initially puzzled
by this, and by the third stanza her puzzlement has changed to anger, and
instead of asking them to explain why they feel the way that they do, she is
taunting them more and defying their attempts to keep her tied to the past and
its history of oppression. The speaker begins the poem by casually questioning
the object of the poem and then interrogating angrily. She essentially puts her
oppressors on trial and finds them guilty right away. Once her rage climaxes in
the eighth stanza, she ceases her questioning and instead affirms her resolve
to conquer all the previous offenses she has outlined throughout the poem.
24) Who is the poet speaking
for in the poem?
Ans: There is a double meaning to what the poet
is saying throughout the poem. She is speaking for herself, affirming her pride
in herself, her intention to honor her ancestors' sacrifice and affirming that
whatever is done to try to hold her back, she will find a way to rise above it.
However, she is not only speaking for herself, and the poem also tells those
who want to go back to how things used to be, and who want to keep African
Americans down, that whatever they do the tide has turned and that equality is
a right. "I rise" speaks not only for the poet herself, as a personal
affirmation, but also for the African American community and women who will
fight for equality regardless of how many times oppressors try to take it from
them.
25) How does the
repetition of the phrase, "I rise," affect the tone and overall
impact of the poem?
Ans: The various forms of this refrain
("I'll rise," "I rise") give the poem a determined and
triumphant tone. One might argue that as an African American writer, Angelou
chooses to repeat these words so as to mimic the songs, prayers, and
meditations that so many slaves turned to when they were suffering. The
repetition of a phrase gives it emphasis, and that is exactly what the poet/speaker
is doing here. She is reemphasizing the fact that no matter what the oppressors
do to her or to her people, she/they will rise above it all. Therefore, while
the poem can sound provocative and angry in some places, the overall
tone—especially in the last two stanzas—is a hopeful and joyous one, just as
music and meditations often celebrate the joy of life.
