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Still I Rise, By Maya Angelou

Decent Essays

‘Still I Rise’ is about an African American who addresses the white oppression on blacks. The author, Maya Angelou portrays this impact in her poem as a building point for her. She uses the phrase “Bringing the gift that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and hope of slave” to bring her whole idea together. As you read through it more you see that she is taking the strength that her ancestors had and learning form it and letting her ancestors wish that they had for the future and making it happen. Still I rise was published in 1987 which was a very controversial time because that was when speaking out about the mistreatment of about the blacks was challenged. So, when the poet spoke out about this issue it was a huge step into her standing up and rising. People did not expect Maya to do such a thing and many viewed it as offensive and not right. In her first line, she starts it off with “You” which clearly has an important reason behind it. Basically, the way she started it off with the word you it demonstrates that she is addressing the poem to others which means that it’s not private. …show more content…

She demonstrates this in the lines “you may shoot me with your words… cut me with your eyes… kill me with your hatefulness.” As you can see she uses words that correlates with pain, danger and fear to express the pain she feels. For instance, in the line “you may shoot me with your words” she talks about the names she must have been called and the amount of pressure she gets from them. When the poet talks about the line “you may cut me with your eyes” she is explaining the looks she gets on the daily just beaming at her skin. Lastly, in the line “you may kill me with your hatefulness”, it is kind of self-explanatory, but she is addressing the hate she gets form the white oppressors who judge her for who she

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