Angelou maya poems still i rise meaning

Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" is a powerful poem that draws on a range of influences, including her personal background and the African American experience in the United States. Its message of liberation and survival was a consistent theme in Angelou's work. Years after it was published in 1978, the poem continues to reach readers and audiences, cutting across racial lines and national boundaries. Angelou herself commented on its appeal in a 2008 interview: "You know, if you're lonely you feel you've been done down, it's nice to have 'And Still I Rise.'"

Poetry helped Angelou with her mutism as a child

Angelou grew up amid the degradations of the Jim Crow South. At the age of seven, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was killed (presumably by family members seeking retribution) after she reported the crime. Following this trauma, Angelou sought refuge in mutism. But even when she wouldn't speak, Angelou studied and memorized poems, which gave her a unique understanding of language.

A desire to express her love for poetry by speaking it aloud helped draw Angelou out of her mutism. Yet she didn't forget the wide breadth of literature she'd taken in, which included works by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare.

She penned her first verses when she was still in school, and in the late 1950s, Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she interacted with James Baldwin and other writers. She authored plays, including one that was produced off-Broadway in 1960. While living in Egypt in the early 1960s, she edited an English-language newspaper and also spent time as a singer, dancer and actress.

However, Angelou admitted that writing poetry was always a challenge for her: "When I come close to saying what I want to, I’m over the moon. Even if it’s just six lines, I pull out the champagne. But until t

Maya Angelou is one of the most important literary figures in twentieth century American history. Her poetry is often included on reading lists for high school English courses, and it may even make an appearance on the AP Literature exam.

In this article, we’ll give you a full introduction to Angelou and her engaging poetry so that you’ll be equipped to analyze it all on your own. To do this, we’re going to guide you through a close analysis of one of Angelou’s most famous poems, “Still I Rise.”

To help you learn what Angelou’s “Still I Rise” poem is all about, we’ll cover the following in this article: 

• A brief intro to the poet, Maya Angelou
• “Still I Rise” poem background
• The overarching meaning of “Still I Rise”
• The top three themes in the poem
• The top two poetic devices in the poem

Are you ready to dive in? Then let’s go!

Maya Angelou, speaking at Wake Forest University, in 2008. (Kingofthedead/Wikimedia)

Meet the Poet, Maya Angelou

In order to fully understand the meaning of a poem, it’s important to start by looking at the life of the poet who wrote it. Why? Because poets sometimes reference their own life experiences, relationships, and personal identities in their works. In this instance, we’re going to look at the life of Maya Angelou, the poet who wrote the poem, “Still I Rise.”

Maya Angelou, whose given name was Marguerite Annie Johnson, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. Her father, Bailey Johnson, was a doorman and navy dietician, and her mother, Vivian Johnson, was a nurse and card dealer.

Growing up, Angelou’s home life was chaotic and sometimes emotionally distressing. Angelou’s parents divorced when she was three, and her home life became unstable. In the years following, Angelou and her brother were shuffled from place to place, including their grandmother’s home in Stamps, Arkansas. 

After returning to St. Louis at age eight, Angelou was sexually assaulted by her m

Maya Angelou’s iconic poem “Still I Rise” has had an impact on the world that will echo throughout generations, especially for Black women. Everything about this poem—the repetition, the natural imagery, its ancestral pride–induces a feeling of soaring whenever read or recited. Published in Angelou’s third poetry collection, And Still I Rise, in 1978, it’s a poem about overcoming injustice and prejudice, and the immutable strength of the human spirit.

The late Nelson Mandela even chose this poem for his inauguration in 1994, after spending 27 years in Robben Island prison for his resistance to the South African apartheid government. Mandela himself spoke and wrote at length about the importance of maintaining dignity and strength in the face of overwhelming oppression.

Angelou, who grew up in the Jim Crow South and was heavily involved in the civil rights movement, experienced extreme racism and sexism as a Black woman, and that dual experience is reflected in this poem. “Still I Rise” has a special meaning for Black women, with sensual imagery and joyful celebration of Black women’s bodies, which have always been weaponized and exploited. There’s something powerful about Angelou, a survivor of child abuse, reclaiming the power and beauty and sensuality on her terms. It’s no wonder this poem has spoken and continues to speak to Black survivors of sexual violence.

Moons and suns, tides and black oceans. The dream and the hope of the slave. Angelou’s rise from oppression creates a cinematic feel of her rising with the tide of that black ocean that carried her ancestors. The natural imagery in this poem, as well as the reference to ancestor pride, makes it transcendent, almost spiritual. Much of Angelou’s work has this hymn-like quality, a nod to the influences of Black gospel music.

And with the juxtaposition of the violent language and actions of the oppressor—“bitter, twisted lies

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.

“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 backyard.

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?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”

Maya Angelou – Poet, Author, Civil Rights Activist (1928–2014)