"Still I Rise," by Maya Angelou, is a poem written about African Americans right after the nation's Civil Rights Movement. It expresses the free spirit of all African Americans. Angelou writes of overcoming the hardships of the beginnings of the race in America. Furthermore, the poem gives people the will to rise above all inequities and flourish. Angelou's writing is loud with hope and inspiration. Her work is about survival and looks for the positive things in life, especially in a time of adversity. While her poem reminds the readers of past tragedies and injustices, overall it is a testimony to the power of hope to survive in life with dignity and grace.
The first stanza is about the lies and distortion of the treatment all African Americans. …show more content…
Martin Luther King, Jr., with whom she worked closely with before his assassination. Furthermore, like Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr., Angelou uses repetition to emphasize her point, though he used anaphora’s (repetition in the beginning of each stanza) and Angelou used epiphora’s (repetition at the end of each stanza). Furthermore, they both have an inspiring, motivational, and uplifting rhythm to their work that is similar to that of a sermon in a Southern Baptist Church. Just like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches kept his audience focused so does Maya Angelou’s.
The next stanza is one of the more controversial; it challenges black female stereotypes, that draw on images of a slave girl, a sexual victim, a spiritual leader, a physical healer, and/or a pillar of wisdom, home, hearth, and sustenance. This stanza breaks those stereotypes and depicts the narrator as a sexy dancer. Angelou at one point herself a professional dancer, knows the sense of dancing gleefully. Her beauty is powerful, and she is as desirable as shiny
The first stanza is about the lies and distortion of the treatment all African Americans. …show more content…
Martin Luther King, Jr., with whom she worked closely with before his assassination. Furthermore, like Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr., Angelou uses repetition to emphasize her point, though he used anaphora’s (repetition in the beginning of each stanza) and Angelou used epiphora’s (repetition at the end of each stanza). Furthermore, they both have an inspiring, motivational, and uplifting rhythm to their work that is similar to that of a sermon in a Southern Baptist Church. Just like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches kept his audience focused so does Maya Angelou’s.
The next stanza is one of the more controversial; it challenges black female stereotypes, that draw on images of a slave girl, a sexual victim, a spiritual leader, a physical healer, and/or a pillar of wisdom, home, hearth, and sustenance. This stanza breaks those stereotypes and depicts the narrator as a sexy dancer. Angelou at one point herself a professional dancer, knows the sense of dancing gleefully. Her beauty is powerful, and she is as desirable as shiny