Poetry Journal #9 - 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?

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

I really like this poem. It's clear that this poem is defiant, and delivered with supreme confidence. The speaker of the poem is clearly one who has been trod upon by life and other people in it, and is still standing or "rising" up to them.

The speaker is clearly a woman, and in addition to speaking of her strength, she speaks of her sexuality with lines like "diamonds at the meeting of my thighs." She has clearly been looked down upon not only for other attributes, but also for her gender as a woman. So her defiance in this subject is pride on being a woman.

I find the rhythm of this poem interesting. It starts off with four-line stanzas that provide the poem with a very even rhythm, and rhyming abcb pattern. However, at the end it switches to almost free-verse with internal and external rhymes, and a very different pattern interrupted by the lines "I rise." I appreciate this poem greatly, but I almost feel that the last segment could be broken out and made its own poem and both would stand very strongly independently.