Still I Rise
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.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
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.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
• The use of the pronoun ‘you’ immediately differentiates the persona from her
intended audience. The persona asserts: ‘You may write me down in history / With
your bitter, twisted lies’. The persona feels that her identity has been wilfully
negatively misinterpreted. She continues: ‘You may trod me in the very dirt / But
still, like dust, I’ll rise’. The past participle ‘trod’ sounds hard, and is perhaps meant
to reflect the aggressive nature of the action of the person / people who is / are
repressing the persona. The persona’s choice of natural imagery (‘like dust’) makes
it seem inevitable that she will ‘rise’.
• The second verse begins with a rhetorical question: ‘Does my sassiness upset you?’
This implies that the intended audience is ‘upset’ (disturbed) by her ‘sassiness’
(saucy nature). The adjective ‘sassy’ is colloquial, especially used in America.
America is home to the African American poet Maya Angelou.
This is followed by another question: Why are you beset with gloom?’ The persona
answers this question herself: ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells / Pumping in my
living room’. Consider this simile carefully. Does it simply create an image of the
persona walking with energy and enthusiasm? Does it imply that she is walking as
if she has a fortune? However you interpret the simile, it is clear that the intended
audience of the poem is disturbed by the buoyant nature of the persona.
• The persona again uses natural imagery (‘like moons and like suns, / With the
certainty of tides’) to express the inevitability of her ‘rise’. Notice that she repeats
the phrase ‘I rise’ (and will continue to do so throughout the poem) to underline her
determination to rise and the inevitability of this.
• Like the second verse, the fourth verse begins with a rhetorical question: ‘Do you
want to see me broken?’ This could be interpreted either literally or
metaphorically; it could refer to the persona being ‘broken’ physically or spiritually.
The second question (‘Bowed head and lowered eyes?’) implies that the intended
audience wanted to see the persona broken spiritually. The intended audience
wanted to see the persona’s ‘shoulders falling down like teardrops, / Weakened by
[her] soulful cries.’ The simile suggests that the intended audience wanted to see
the persona’s shoulders slumped due to sadness.
• The persona asks: ‘Does my haughtiness offend you?’ This creates the impression
that she may be ‘haughty’ (arrogant, self-admiring or disdainful). This may
‘offend’ the intended audience if it thought that the persona’s social status should
not allow her any sense of pride. She continues: ‘Don’t take it awful hard / ‘Cause I
laugh like I’ve got gold mines / Diggin’ in my own back yard’. The simile
suggests that her laughter is triumphant…
• In a similar manner to the first verse, the persona asserts: ‘You may shoot me with
your words, /You may cut me with your eyes, / You may kill me with your
hatefulness’. The language is violent (shoot, cut, kill) and underlines the sense of
animosity that the persona feels is directed as her by the intended audience. It is
interesting to consider that her ancestors, who were slaves, would have been
literally shot, cut and killed. The persona adds: ‘But still, like air, I’ll rise’. Again,
she uses natural imagery (like air) to make it seem inevitable that she will ‘rise’.
• The persona asks: ‘Does my sexiness upset you?’ Her question implies that she
recognises her own sexual appeal. She continues to ask: ‘Does it come as a surprise
/ That I dance like I’ve got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?’ She uses a
simile to demonstrate the precious nature of her sexuality.