- The poem Still I Rise is about Maya Angelou facing oppression and not letting it crush her. This is supported by the poem repeating “still I rise” throughout it, and 5 times at the end, and phrases such as “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear”, “I am the hopes and dreams of a slave”, and “Up from a past rooted in plain”.
- Maya Angelou wrote this poem to recognise the oppression she and all other African Americans have faced in their lives, and how they have slowly overcame it and risen
- The effect of writing still I rise 5 times near the end of the poem is to drive home the fact that no matter how hard her oppressors try, she will still rise, and she inspires all other oppressed people of the world to rise with her.
- “You may shoot me with your words”, “cut me with your eyes”, “you may kill me with your hate”, and “I am the hope and dreams of a slave” are all examples of metaphors in the poem still I rise that show both the oppression Angelou has faced, and the final one showing her over comming it, going into a now free world where a black woman can be the most successful poet in the world and even share her poem at a president’s inauguration.
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