Top Grade Analysis of the poem Still I Rise

I'm going to start off with the, uh, first stanza because that makes sense. But, I also want to talk just a little bit about the title for a second. Now, a lot of people when they talk about "Still I Rise", they talk about it in the sense of race. And that is absolutely one way of looking at this poem. It's It's a really important way of looking at this poem. I'm not trying to like belittle that. However, I think there is a universality to "Still I Rise". There is It has an ability to apply to a huge range um of different issues and it's it's timeless in many ways as well. And part of the reason that I say that is because of the poem's title, "Still I Rise". You've got obviously that key metaphor that we're

going to see throughout this poem of rising. And in that sense, the metaphor being a metaphor about rising above oppression. But, you've also got that still. With that adverb, um suggesting that sense of like resilience and perseverance and continuing on um in the face of some kind of oppression. So, in that sense, I feel like yes, this poem does look at two specific forms of oppression in the form of racism and sexism. But, I like to think of this poem as still ultimately having a universal idea to it of just general kind of resilience, uh, facing adversity, fighting back against all forms of oppression, all that good stuff. With that in mind, if we look at this very first stanza. So, the very first

line is "You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies." So, we have to ask ourselves, who is that you? I mean, that's the very first word of the poem. So, it's clearly important that it's being directed at somebody. Um Now, there's a few different ways of of debating this. You know, is the you the reader? Is the you a particular person? I think the you is a particular group. And I think that you is, um oppressive power. Anybody who for every reason tries to oppress anybody. That's who the you is. That's who the poem is speaking to. And so when we have this you may write me down in history, we then have to ask who is the me? Again, the me could be the specific speaker of this poem, but I think the

specific speaker of this poem is representing far more than just themselves and I think they are representing all oppressed groups. So we've got this real sense of the oppressed versus the oppressor from the very opening line. And then we have to deal with then the metaphor of that line. You may write me down in history. Now, the reason I say that's a metaphor is is the phrasing you may write me down. That focus on personal pronouns makes it feel very personal, makes it feel very intimate like a person writing another person, which obviously you cannot do, which is why I say metaphor. And what I think that metaphor means is about what the history represents and the ability to write history represents.

Now, of course that can refer to just, you know, on a a real level the issues we have in the recording of history and and whose stories get told. And therefore it's like a metaphor for controlling the narrative to quote Taylor Swift um and controlling how oppressed groups are represented throughout time in history and all that kind of stuff. So in that sense, I think that history is symbolic of just generally how we um record and remember ourselves, each other um over time. And then so the writing somebody down, the act of writing somebody down is the power to control that information, the power to control how people are reme- remembered, to control how people are represented, um to control how people

are spoken about. And what our speaker very clearly says here is with your bitter, twisted lies. Now, that is some very blunt, harsh language there in that bitter and twisted and and lies, of course, as well. And that's important because of the tone that it creates. The tone that it creates, again, from our opening two lines of the poem is that our speaker is not holding back. Our speaker is being outspoken, is being candid, is going to be blunt about what they think. And what they think is that history does not represent people accurately. It's an allusion to the very real problem that we have in the real world of history being very one-sided. We hear this criticism all the time that history

is told by you know, the ones that were in power, who are therefore also the ones who were the oppressors. So, it's explicitly alluding to that problem that exists in how we record our history. And in that sense, this isn't even metaphorical because it is talking about a real person. But again, the reason I called it metaphorical is because of that personal language of you may write me down. It's not the people who control the narrative, I don't know, the oppressed groups write down information about other oppressed groups. She's made it personal. She's made it like, you know, with the personal pronouns, it's very intimate. And I think that again is a deliberate act in trying to get to that personal

consequence of oppression as well. She's not trying to deal with the large-scale. She's really bringing it down to you and me, and it feels really personal in that way, and I really really like that. That also works when we then get our next metaphor of you may trod me in the very dirt. Because again, it feels incredibly personal. It feels that treading someone down feels violent. And again, if we ask ourselves what that metaphor means, it's about that oppressive power imbalance, isn't it? Because if you're treading someone, treading on someone, you have power. Um and if you're being trodden into the dirt, it makes it seem like, you know, dirt has connotations of being unimportant, worthless, insignificant,

and therefore all of that is true of that person who's being trodden on, basically. So, this is a metaphor for the power imbalance that exists between them. However, so our um writer has has set up the expectations of you may do this, you may do this. However, they're then going to be like, "Nope. This is not going to go as you think it's going to go." But, still like dust I'll rise. So, first of all, that adverb of still is like it doesn't matter what you do. As I mentioned already, it's got that sense of just um persevering beyond what is done to somebody. And then she says that she's going to rise like dust. Now, the like dust comes before the rising, so it's important we look at that simile first. And that

simile contains within it a biblical allusion. Now, in the Bible, I want to say it's in Genesis. I don't I don't know my Bible well enough, I'm sorry. Somebody can correct me in the comments if I'm getting the exact location wrong. Um but, in the Bible it says that the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground. Um so, I I didn't know that. Um but, uh yeah, that is a a biblical allusion there. So, that's interesting because if she's saying she's going to rise like dust, and then the dust, so on the one hand, hold on. Backtrack a second. First of all, dust, dirt, there's a connection between the images there. So, she's just been trodden into the dirt, but she's now rising above, which is like what

actually happens with dirt. So, in that sense, she's She's that natural imagery to reflect how she's going to keep persevering. We can also see that this biblical illusion of God forming man out of the dust from the ground. So, in that sense, she's giving herself a sense of power and a sense of significance back again. Our oppressor tried to take it away in the metaphor of you trod me in the very dirt. She is gaining it back in this simile by kind of alluding to God's creation of, you know, man. Okay? And and how God gave us a power and and you know, God has kept us rising from the ground and all that kind of stuff. You've also got an interesting use of the modal verb after that, I'll rise. I

will rise. Notice how that modal verb juxtaposes the other one we've had, that the oppressors have had, you may write me down, you may trod me in the very dirt. With may, there's not a certainty about it. You could, you couldn't. So, on the one hand, that is showing the power of the oppressor, right? Because they have choices. They could choose to oppress and they can choose not to. So, it's showing their power. But then we also have that juxtaposed against the modal verb of will rise and the certainty in that. There is no doubt in her mind she is going to rise above. So, in that sense, that juxtaposition between the potential of may showing their power also is then juxtaposed against the certainty of will showing her power, our

speaker's power. Again, every time I say like her, I'm going to keep doing that out of habit because Maya Angelou wrote the poem, but remember that the me and the I of this poem it's all oppressed groups. So, that universality I was talking about. All oppressed groups have this like certainty to rising above, to fighting back. And that rise above, of course, is a metaphor um technically I would argue it's like schrumamorphism cuz like objects rise and the sun rises. Um but speaking of the sun rising, it's that natural imagery again, similar to the dirt and the dust, and she's going to refer to the sun later herself as well. It's that natural imagery um that just it This sounds really stupid to say, but

the natural imagery reinforces how natural it is for her to keep persevering, for her to keep going in the face of adversity. And that rising is of course a metaphor for how she's overcoming. She's working to not let the adversity bring her down. Now, what I mean by bringing her down is going to vary throughout the poem. She's going to uh lay out lots of different ways that oppressors try to bring people down. What we have here is just an initial outlining of how they try to reinforce power structures. Okay, so we've got the you may write me down in history and the power involved in being able to control the narrative and control how somebody's represented. And then also the uh tr- treading in the dirt and the power

there. So, this stanza just looks at the power generally, the power imbalance generally, and suggests generally she's going to rise above that power imbalance. For the next stanza, we've got uh basically a really nice stanza. Just like moons and like suns with the certainty of tides, just like hope springing high, still I'll rise. Um so, first of all, we've got a continuation of that natural imagery, moons, suns, and tides. So, she's really reinforcing how this behavior she's engaging with is not profound, it's not complicated, it's natural, it's normal. Of course she's got it. Just like the moons, just like the suns, just like the tides. And also with those similes specifically, that reference to

moon and sun and tides, it's about that certainty, about that regularity, that consistency, and how that is symbolic of her ability to rise above the uh attempts at oppression, her ability to persevere, her resilience, um all of that good stuff. You've also got this um list of metaphors. This entire stanza is just simile, simile, metaphor, simile, metaphor. So, you've got an asyndetic list of all positive metaphors, and they're all about rising. They're all about going above that oppression there. And uh it just really creates such a happy, confident tone, doesn't it? And that's going to be important to note considering the stanza we're going to see next, okay? Because basically, she's really creating this tone of

uh [gasps] positivity, happiness, confidence, certainty, that's going to contrast, again, reality versus expectations, with the expectations of the oppressor that we're going to see in the next stanza. And uh we've also got "Still I'll Rise" being repeated again. Does anybody want ice cream? I bet I've put you really in the mood for an ice cream now. What ice cream are you in the mood for? 99. With a flake. There is no other correct answer. Even though 99's haven't actually cost 99p since like 1992. But anyway, now that that noise is done, uh we've got this repetition of "Still I'll Rise" again. This is our third time seeing that phrase. We see it in the title, we saw it in the first stanza,

and now we're seeing it here. So, obviously the repetition of that phrase is just about reinforcing um her uh perseverance, her resilience, how she's going to keep going. But we can also analyze, kind of structurally, the fact that when "Still I'll Rise" comes up, and we'll keep seeing this as the poem uh goes on later, it's always at the end of a stanza, and it's got a shorter line length than the other lines in the stanza. And the thing I think the reason I think that she's done that is because it just creates, you know how I was saying about the natural imagery? This isn't a complicated issue. This is natural. I think that's the same. There's a simplicity to it, a certainty and a simplicity to those shorter lines

with the still I'll rise. Um and I think that's a deliberate part of it just her just wanting to end the stanzas on this one not every stanza, but most of the stanzas on this note of just this is what I'm going to do. Simple, really. Um and I think it really helps create that confidence, again that sense of like yeah, there's just not an ounce of doubt, is there? She's so self-assured in this poem, which again completely contrasts with what the oppressor wants her to be. You've also got linked to this kind of constant positivity, this constant sense of her rising above adversity. You've also got that being reinforced by the phonological devices that Maya Angelou is uh using in the stanza. Now, you might have heard me

just say phonological and been like, "A what? What was that word?" Um phonological is just a really fancy way of saying sound. Um so it refers to any technique that involves manipulating sound in some way, which you can get obviously in poems um is a phonological device. And the phonological device I I just really like saying that word. The phonological device that we have in this stanza is assonance. So assonance is where you have repeated vowel sounds. And the vowel sound we have going on here is I I I I I. Like the Adjust like moons as like suns with the certainty of tides just like hope springing high, still I'll rise. Um and what that basically does that I I I as it keeps going, it keeps being used

throughout this stanza, it acts as a kind of um audible way of recreating the rise. Like if you listen to that stanza, I'll read it through one more time without my weird over-pronunciation, but hopefully you'll be able to hear how those repeated I sounds really reinforce that feeling of rising. Just like moons and like suns with the certainty of tides, just like hope springing high, still I'll rise. Like isn't that so nice? Just I I I. Um I've just realized I didn't talk about the like hope springing high. And this is an interesting one because it's a a simile, but also there's a metaphor within the simile. So she's comparing her um and I guess the simile is also being applied to a metaphor because it's a

rise like hope springing high. So it's just metaphors on metaphors on metaphors. But you've got that uh personification of hope springing high first of all. So that abstract concept of hope obviously showing her perseverance, her resilience there. Springing, that dynamic verb of like not only being up high in terms of height, um but also the energy to it as well, you know? That really positive energy to how it's moving. Um and of course hope, that abstract concept of Did I say that already? I felt like I said that already. I feel like the ice cream van has thrown my brain for a loop and now I just I'm not focused enough. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself now. But um the hopes being an abstract

abstract noun, yeah. Abstract noun for Man, I just need to go have some ice cream. Being an abstract noun obviously for like, you know, that that positive feelings for the future. She's viewing the future positively. And that links with um that modal verb of I will as well because we can think of will as not just being the modal verb of certainty, but also the future tense. Like in the future, she's going to rise. Interestingly, I had a student raise a really good point about this in the sense that the fact that it's future tense could suggest she hasn't written risen yet. Um like, you know, she will rise. And I think do you think that's a really interesting way of looking at it, but I also think the other verbs that we've

dealt with in this poem like I walk like I've got oil wells pumping in my living room and I'll rise, they're present tense. And so the present tense is creating that sense of it happening, you know, in the moment right now. So, for me, I'm not completely convinced about this idea if she doesn't have it yet, but she will have it in the future. I think it's more of a comment of she has it now in the present with the I walk and I rise. But also she will continue to have it for time infinitum. Is that the right Latin word? Let's say that's the right thing. Time time is infinitimus miss. On to the next stanza. So, remember how I said we needed to pay attention to the fact that the last stanza was entirely

like positive metaphors about rising above adversity, and that was going to contrast to this stanza? Well, that is because this stanza is nothing but interrogative questions really trying to outline all the kind of expectations that the oppressor has. Did you want to see me broken, bowed head and lowered eyes, shoulders falling down like teardrops, weakened by my soulful cries? So, we've got a juxtaposition between rather than what we've had so far of like within a stanza, we've got whole stanza versus whole stanza. Now, that was a really interesting one structurally in terms of why do that. Why change to having whole positive versus whole negative? And to be honest with you, I'm not sure I have an answer

for that. I really want you to tell me in the comments what you think because this is the only point where we're going to have it, and it's also the middle-ish of the poem, I want to say. So, why do that? Why shift from having the like here's what you want, here's what I am, here's what you want, here's what I am. Why change that structure to just here's what I am and here's what you want. And why that order, too? Why the positive ones first and then the negative ones? You have to let me know in the comments what you think, cuz I've been musing on that one, and I'm not convinced I'm not convinced by any of my arguments. So, I really want to hear yours. But going back to focusing on this kind

of stream of negative interrogatives that we've got here, that are all their kind of expectations, that um combative tone is still there with all these interrogatives. Um and it's really kind of hammered as well because of how many there are. It's interrogative, interrogative, interrogative. But we also can see, when we look at these questions, we get more of an insight into what it is that the oppressed groups are looking for. What is they want to have happen to the people that they're oppressing? So, first of all, did you want to see me broken? That's a metaphor. We might not think of it as a metaphor anymore cuz we use it so often that we don't even like it's like a dead metaphor, and we don't

even think of it that way, but it actually is cuz this is not talking about broken as in like a broken bone. This is talking about mental spirit, and therefore it's a metaphor for how the oppressor wants to break them emotionally, basically break oppressed groups emotionally. And the reason they want that, we get the clue in the second question, bowed head and lowered eyes. So, that imagery of bowed head and lowered eyes, they both have connotations of subservience. They have connotations of inferiority. And so, we can see that that is what our oppressor wants from breaking the mental spirit of our oppressed groups is they want them to feel inferior, which of course fits with images we've seen

before of talking about you trod me in the very dirt. We then have shoulders falling down teardrops, weakened by my soulful cries. So, what we see there, we've had that um broken representing their mental spirit, but then shoulders represents like their you know, physical body, their outward behaviors just as with bowed head and lowered eyes. So, essentially what they want is for their mental state to affect their physical being and change the way they behave. And so, falling down like teardrops is a fairly obvious simile there. Teardrops um being like you know, first of all representing sadness, so um harking back to the mental state that has led your your shoulders to fall. But also, if we think of teardrops being

like they fall quite quickly and sharply, so it's like they want to have quite a strong instant negative effect. And they want it to be weakened by my soulful cries. So, it's like well, as I've already said, your mental state is um weakening your physical state. Now, that's interesting because that really juxtaposes the dynamic verbs we had earlier of walking um uh in my living walking like I've got oil wells in my living room. There's this huge contrast here between the strength and confidence of those lines and the weakness and inferiority of these lines. So again, reality versus expectations. What our oppressor want is for our oppressed group to feel weak, to feel inferior, to feel insignificant, to

feel you broken. Um but in reality, our oppressed people are like In my head, I was singing Beyoncé's I woke up like this. I would never sing that out loud because um we don't need that on YouTube. Next thing though, that I think is really interesting in this stanza, this weakened by my soulful cries bit. So, she's obviously trying to have all of these interrogatives where it's like, did you want this? Did you want this? Did you want this? And it's supposed to be this really uh negative stanza of all the ways they want to weaken her. But, we have this adjective soulful. My soulful cries. Soulful has laudatory connotations. It's about In case you're not familiar with what the word like dictionary

definition means, it means that you are feeling emotions like really deeply. But, it's also come to have laudatory connotations to be a laudatory adjective to be like, you know, a positive way of saying that you're really in touch with your emotions and you're really in touch with who you are. So, the reason I love that is because in this whole stanza that's supposed to be like, "Oh, I'm weak. I'm broken." She can't even do it. She can't even make herself weak and broken for one single stanza. She still has to slip in that laudatory adjective of being soulful in there. Like, if I'm going to cry, I'm going to do it soulfully. That's just like that's the way it has to be. And I just man, I freaking love this poem. For

this stanza, I'm not going to spend masses of time on it because the stuff you can say about it is the same as what I already said for the oil wells stanza. So, you've got those interrogatives. You've got the sarcastic confrontational tone. The mocking tone. You've got the colloquial language. All that kind of stuff. One thing I want to address in those opening two lines that is different is the word haughtiness. Now, the dictionary definition dictionary definition of haughtiness is and this is from Collins dictionary, my favorite dictionary. You use haughty to describe someone's behavior or appearance when you disapprove of the fact that they seem to be very proud and to think that they are better than other

people. So, that one again is we're seeing that language of the language of the oppressor. Similar to sassiness, but this time we've got a word that's basically it's got pejorative connotations to describe the positive thing we've had so far, the positive behavior we've had of having self-worth, self-value, self-love, confidence. Haughtiness is the negative way of describing that feeling. And there's also an interesting irony to it as well because you can see where it says like you think you're better than other people. There's an irony to that in our oppressors disliking somebody having a sense of superiority over somebody else. So that fits with that mocking tone again, isn't it? It's like, "Oh, do you

dislike me doing exactly what you do?" All that kind of stuff. The last two lines of the stanza again very very similar to what I've already said for our oil wells metaphor. So we've got the laugh. The change here last time we had walk. So our laugh is still a dynamic verb. It's gone from symbolizing outer behaviors with the verb walk to symbolizing emotions with laugh. And you've again got that simile of gold mines just swapping for oil wells, but they still have that symbolism of wealth and power. And we've still got that natural imagery that's conveying the sense of she has it innately, she has it in her personal space. And she's just like harnessing that power. And the I've put again as I've

already mentioned here the fact that it's in present tense. I laugh and I'm is digging. She's actively taking that power. She's actively holding that sense of self-worth there. So yeah, this is this stanza is pretty much identical in the meaning being created to our oil wells one. And so what's significant about it is just examining the slight changes in the pattern. So the change from sassiness to haughtiness, the change from walk to laugh, the slight change but same real meaning between oil wells pumping in my living room versus gold mines digging in my own backyard. Otherwise, this is pretty much the same. On to the next stanza. 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. So, first of all, we've got the parallelism in those When did I reveal the word parallelism? Whatever. We've got the parallelism in you may verb me with your noun. You may verb me with your noun. So, we've got that parallelism there. And what that parallelism is doing, when it's combined with the fact that this is also a tricolon, there's three of them, um it really creates that sense of the constant oppression. You know, you may do this, you may do this, you may do this. And the effect of that really combines with that tricolon I mentioned. It's the shoot me, cut me, kill me, words, eyes, hatefulness. Now, there's different things we can say about the two

different parts of that tricolon. So, first of all, the shoot, cut, kill. Obviously, very violent, aggressive, dynamic verbs. But, what's interesting as the pattern goes along is the level of intimacy required with each one. So, shoot can be done from a distance. Um cut is much more like, you know, that's got to be done It's got to be done at somebody, you know, you've got to be much, much closer. Um and kill is obviously it's not so much more intimate, I guess, but it's it's much more intense. So, there is an increasing in the intensity as we see it goes from becoming more personal and then becoming significantly more severe in its level of violence and the consequences of that violence. You've also then got a pattern on the

other side of it with the words, eyes, and hatefulness. Um so, you've got that range of behavior. So, words is symbolizing actions. So, in that sense, shoot me with your words makes sense as a metaphor because it's that idea of how from a distance, you know, you can say things, you can write things, you can cause that harm. So, words is is "You may shoot me with your words" is like a metaphor for similar to that "You may write me down in history." The idea of what we say and what we do in our actions like, you know, writing history that lead to us engaging in oppressive behaviors and harming people, but it's from a distance as suggested in that shoot. We then have "You may cut me with your eyes." So, now we've we're

still on behavior with eyes, but it's now much more closer, it's now much more intimate, which then makes sense with the cut. So, now it's about how, you know, you're looking at somebody that is near you. It's how you behave with somebody that's in your proximity, that's actually visual, whereas the shooting with the words metaphor is somebody who's much further away. We then have a change in the last one with hatefulness. So, words and eyes are like concrete images. Hatefulness is our first abstract image. We've kind of shifted from concrete to abstract. And that's really important because that's essentially like the hatefulness is the core emotion behind everything we've read in the others. The

shooting with the words, the cutting with the eyes, that's all with the hatefulness. So, essentially it's like as the violence has become more intense, we've gotten deeper into the core of why that violence happens. And that is because of that abstract of hatefulness there. What's interesting though is despite all of this, despite this constant violence and constant attempts at oppression cuz again, notice the the modal verb we talked about before of may. Okay, so it's that potential there. It's not a certainty, it's a potential constant potential for oppression. Against all of that, we've got the simile like air I'll rise. Now, of course, air you can't it's it's it's an abstract noun. You can't touch it. It's not tangible

and so it's almost like the reason I love it is because it takes that shoot, that cut, that kill, that violence and in a single word makes it useless. You can't shoot air. You can't cut air. You can't kill air. It just all of the attempts fail. And that is of course the point of the simile, right? She's trying to say your attempts at harming me, your attempts at oppressing me they're going to fail because I am going to rise. And we just again got that repetition of but still I'll rise. So it's that considering this is is this time number four that we're seeing this this line of but still I'll rise? It's just that constant re-emphasis, isn't it? You can do this, you can do this, you can do this, but still I'll

rise. And so it's almost that repetition of it. By now it's become a certainty in our minds as well cuz we know that line is coming. It's coming again and again and again. So it really reflects that certainty of how she's going to behave. And also that power as well, okay? Because on the one hand the tricolon of you know, shooting someone, cutting someone, killing, that really shows the oppressive power that they have got in that violence. But there is also a great power in being able to be like air and be untouchable from all of that. And there's arguably an increase in power that we've seen within the poem cuz if you remember the like dust simile that we saw before, now it's like air. So it's you know, it's

higher. It's elevated even higher. So not only is all of this stuff that they're trying to do to her ineffectual, but it's you know, she's risen even further. She has risen above adversity and attempts to oppress her even further than she has in the past. Which again, if I go back to what I was saying before about how some people have tried to argue the will of our rise as future tense. In that sense, that does support that idea, doesn't it? Because it's like she's there is a sense of growth as the poem goes on. Um which is interesting. Um there's also this brilliant juxtaposition between that long lines, overwhelming parallelism and tricolon against the simplicity of that repeated response. Like

you could do this, you could do this, you could do this. It's just all so powerful, powerful, powerful and then it's just undone with I rise. And ah, I love it. It's again, it's that simplicity of her power, isn't it? That we've seen with all that natural imagery because of course air is that fits in with that pattern of natural imagery as well. There's such an emphasis on how her confidence, her um amazingness, her value it's all just so just natural. It's all just of course it's there. There's a beautiful calmness to it um that completely contrasts the really aggressive attempts of the uh of the oppressor. This stanza again, I'm not going to talk about um for very long because it's really similar to the oil

wells and gold mine stanzas that we've had before. But do you remember how I said right at the start of this video that a lot of people try to talk about Still I Rise as if like it's just about racism? And then I said it's much more universal than that. The reason why uh part of the reason why I said that is because if you think about how many stanzas we've done the only kind of suggestion we've had specifically of racism arguably is in the use of the word sassiness. This stanza is the first time I think that Maya Angelou gets specific about the type of oppression that somebody can face. And actually the first kind that she looks at I would argue is sexism. Um potentially a little bit of uh homophobia in there as well with the uh

reference to like sexuality and stuff, too. So that's why I say like this is more a poem just about facing oppression, facing adversity, persevering over anything. Uh that universality to it rather than although it does look at specific kinds of oppression, it's not about them all the time. This is the first time we're going to get um that exploration of sexism there. And we see that with does my sexiness upset you. So we've seen that so far in the the pattern of this interrogative of does my X upset you. The X is some kind of word that's the language of the oppressor. Sexiness is not language of the oppressor, I would say. Um it's more just I guess you could say though it is still a word that is often

used pejoratively to talk about women, isn't it? Um that weird aspect of sexism where we want women to be sexy and yet being overtly sexy is a bad criteria, you know, you want What's that line? You want a lady in the streets but a freak in the sheets or whatever kind of sexist crap they came up with. Um So it's that basic idea of of how a women a woman's sexuality is often seen as being unacceptable. And then we then have just as we've had so far that that I dynamic verb like I've got and then there's somebody. Um this time we've got dancing. So if we think about the pattern we've had of walk and laugh and dance. Obviously dance is another movement similar to walk, but I would say there's a lot more like happy energy. Do you Do

you see me dancing? I can't help myself. There's a lot of happy energy behind that that dynamic verb of dancing compared to walking. So, again, if we You know what we were saying in the last stanza about how the difference between dust and air is like there's been growth. That dance could be the same. That change from walk to dance, there's an increase in the intensity of the dynamic verb of the action is that reflective of a growth in our speaker in the poem. And she's got diamonds at the meeting of her thighs. Now, I'm not going to try and like, you know, be euphemistic here. I'm going to be explicit. The meeting of my thot thighs is referring to her genitalia. So, she's saying she's got diamonds at

her genitalia. So, of course, the diamonds, just as we've seen with the oil wells and the gold mines, is that symbolism of power and wealth again with diamonds. Um but also with that shifting to at the meeting of my thighs. Now, that's a change from our living room and our backyard because there's a huge increase in the personal intimacy there. Um it's not just in her house anymore. It's part of her body now. So, that of course represents this idea of um you know, your your self-love, your self-value being really within yourself. But I feel like the house imagery still suggested that. It's like, you know, it was something innate and within. I think that the key difference with the meeting of the thighs image is its focus

on femininity. It's focus on female identity. And therefore, in that sense, it's suggesting a a sexism essentially is that is what their problem is. Their problem is her having a sense of value and pride and worth in who she is as a woman. That's what they don't like. That's what's coming as a surprise. So, I That's why I would say that this stanza is about talking about the oppression of women specifically. Whoops, I got rid of that. Um Yeah, sorry, I got distracted by that change there. So, yeah, this is the first time we're having a specific kind of oppression addressed and I'm going to say that she's addressing Yeah. Although Although Although Okay, bear with me here. I'm having a thought. So, the

reason I went symbolizes femininity for diamonds at the meeting of my thighs is because of like the shape of the shape of a diamond. You seeing this? The shape of a diamond kind of making us think of the shape of like women's genitalia. Um and so I I connected those dots. That being said, there's no reason the diamond has to apply to female genitalia. It just says the meeting of my thighs. So, that universality to this poem could still apply. Could still be applying as much to men as I mean, I do think the choice of diamonds is deliberate. I do think it's supposed to allude to women, but ultimately there is still a universality to it and that could apply to men, too. So, yeah. We're starting to get to the end of the

poem now. So, in our last stanza, we had a more explicit reference to like sexism. Here, we get a more explicit reference to racism. So, you can see that in the out of the huts of history's shame. She's got that allusion to slavery with the huts making us think of like huts in Africa and the history shame referring to like, you know, the shameful thing that people did in the past. And that sense of shame is reinforced by the consonants in the H's and the S's. The huh huh huh ss They come together to create a real sense of like you're trying to say it like in hushed tones. You're trying to say it quietly. Like out of the huts of history's shame. So, it really reinforces that that sense of shame there. Now, that's a really

interesting way to phrase it. Um, and I'm again, I'm really interested in your thoughts on this cuz I'm not convinced by any of mine. Um, why allude to slavery as history's shame? Because what was interesting is if we think back to our very first stanza, we had history being referred to as a way of like controlling the representation, controlling the narrative, and it was referred to as bitter twisted lies. So, now she's calling it shame. Is it the shame in the sense of the lies that were told about slavery and what people did and you know, people trying to put a positive spin on it. I don't know. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. But, I feel like there's something to that. Well, I know there's something to

that. Why call it history's shame? Like personifying history like that and saying that it has this shame. Why? Because the reason I'm I'm trying to muse on it is if you think about what she suggested about history being controlled by the oppressor. And if you think about how we've had our oppressor painted so far, it almost doesn't make sense that our oppressor is feeling shame about something they did. So, yeah, tell me what you think in the comments. What I do definitely think is important as well though in this line is the syntactical foregrounding. So, a syntactical foregrounding, what you're basically analyzing is the order that the writer has put the words in in a sentence, and you're analyzing why those

words first, basically. And what we've got here is out of. That comes first. So, the grammar of the sentence isn't, you know, I was in the huts of history's shame and I got out. It's out of the huts of history's shame. The out is placed at the start of the sentence. And I think that's really important because even though she is acknowledging the trauma and pain and difficulty of the past, of the adversity, the priority is that dynamic verb of getting out of it. The rising is the bit that's kind of put at the at the very front of the sentence. That is given the priority. So, the emphasis is still not on the pain and the adversity. The emphasis is still on rising above that pain and adversity.

And that makes sense. We then also get the I rise, the continued repeated metaphor. This time though it's in present tense, which now that I think about it, I'm I'm understanding what that person was saying about the I will rise being future tense because that is a change, isn't it? Before it was I will rise, now it's I rise. And we have talked already about how there is a growth in her confidence and power. So, okay, yeah, I am now convinced. Ignore earlier video me. I am convinced the I will rise is a future tense as well. It's not just about certainty. It is also about the future. She hasn't risen yet, but now at the end of this poem she has. Um although still though, still the I walk, the I laugh, the gold mines,

diamonds. What do you think? But we're going to have to discuss this out in the comments like there is there is undoubtedly a change from future to present tense here, but there was also undoubtedly present tense uh earlier in the poem as well. So, tell me what you think is going on there. But point is we do have a change from the I will to I rise. There's also no but still. There's just that even more kind of shorter, more concise, more to the point, more simple um of the certainty of just like I rise um above it. We've also got um in our repeated of I rise that comes again after another metaphor about the trauma of the past, the adversity that's been faced. So a past that's rooted in pain.

That metaphor rooted suggesting you know the trauma as experienced as a result of racism is deep, incredibly deep. Interestingly though, again we've got Wait, no, hold on. I'll come back to the syntactical foregrounding in a second. You also have that pain reinforced by the sound. Because you've got the plosives of past and pain. And then that like really harsh sound b- b- sound. So our plosives is just another phonological device by the way. It's talking about the sounds. So plosives is I'm not going to remember all the letters it refers to, but it's technically basically any letter that requires you to do b- with your mouth. So p- d- I feel like g- is in there. But you've got these plosives with the

repeated p's, past rooted in pain. That's really kind of um again symbolizing that violence, symbolizing that pain, symbolizing that aggression. Despite that though, you've again got syntactical foregrounding because the first word in that line is up. So the priority despite the trauma, despite the pain, the priority is given to the rising above. The priority is given to yeah, I rise. And you've got that repeated again. Notice now the change we've had not just in the actual phrasing of these versions of I rise compared to but still I rise that we've had earlier. Also the repetition repetition is increasing in its proximity. It used to be you know repeated at the end of every other stanza. Now it's twice within one

stanza. So we could say that is reflective of the growth in confidence, the growth in rising, in perseverance and resilience as well. The fact that that phrase is repeated more in this stanza. And it's not at the end, either. It doesn't wait anymore. It keeps rising. Something happens, it rises immediately. Something happens, it rises immediately. Whereas before it, you know, it had a couple of lines of negative expectations and then it would rise later on. We've then got this metaphor, I'm a black ocean leaping and wide, welling and swelling, I bear in the tide. So, the ocean has its connotations of power, strength, all that kind of It's It's basically the power of the ocean, right? And especially when we think about how

that compare combines with the leaping and the wide and the welling and the swelling. It's all trying to make us think about the power of the ocean. But notice that adjective on our on my on our Can't speak. Notice the adjective on our ocean that makes it metaphorical. Well, no, it's not That's not what makes it metaphorical. The I am A is what makes it metaphorical, but enhances the metaphor of it. Black. Black as in skin color. So, there's a sense here of directly associating, directly linking skin color to power and strength. As almost as if that's where it comes from. There's a sense of power and strength that is coming from the skin color. And again, that is defying our expectations of our oppressors, isn't

it? Defying that racist expectation that certain races will view themselves as insignificant, as inferior. This is a metaphor of strength and power. And again, that strength and power is enhanced by the two different adjectival phrases that we've got, leaping and wide and welling and swelling. So, the leaping and wide, it's got again that energy and also scale to the power. And then welling and swelling, the fact again that those are present participles really heightens that sense of um That's a point, actually. If they're present participles, is it an adjectival phrase? I'm asking all kinds of questions here. You'll have to You'll Those of you who know your word classes in English really, really well will have to correct

me cuz my brain can't sit here right now and really interrogate if welling and swelling is an adjectival phrase or is a uh What was the other one I said? Seriously, oh my god, I'm too tired. Welling and swelling is an adjectival phrase or present participle. And those of you who are sitting there thinking, "I don't know what either of those two things are." Adjectival Adjectival phrase just means it's a phrase of words that uses an adjective and that phrase is describing a noun. So, the phrase welling and swelling is describing um her bearing in the tide. Ooh, although Anyway, I'm not going to fall down any more holes about this. You're You're You can tell me in the comments. I'm sure people on YouTube will have no problem

telling me all the ways I am wrong. Um and leaping and wide would be an adjectival phrase cuz it's describing the black ocean. On the other hand, a present participle is a verb that's got the ing. Welling, swelling, leaping. Um So, yeah, it's that kind of like it's actively happening in the moment. So, either way, whether it's the adjectival phrase or it's the present participle, we're going to be able to analyze that because if it's the present participle, then we're going to be able to analyze the fact that it's like it's active in the moment. The power that she's got is active in the moment. So, you know, my analysis pans out even if I'm wrong. So, ha. Um we've then got, on top of that, with

the welling and swelling, getting back to my actual original point. So, leaping and wide is scale, it's energy. Welling and swelling is about growth. It's about that sense of power growing and growing. Notice again, welling and swelling, both words to do with growth. There's no like come down, it's just grow and grow some more. And so there's a real sense of her power growing there. We then have that metaphor continued, I bear in the tide. So bear means you like control it, you're the one that moves it. Okay, so she's saying that she is the ocean is moving the tide. Now, I'll come in a second to what I think the tide represents, but first this metaphor is basically about control, isn't it? This part of the

metaphor. I bear it. I have control of this. I have the control of this movement. So it's that again, that power because of its scale, because of its energy, because of how much it's growing, and because of how in control of it she is. And if you think about that control, we've seen that before with our gold mines and our oil wells. That sense of not just holding the power, but being able to harness it, too. Now the tide, I bear in the tide. So we know that the ocean is comparing an ocean to her personal power, the power that comes from who she is and her identity. What's the tide in this metaphor? Now if we think about what a tide actually is for an ocean, it's like something that is moving in and then

goes back and then moves in again and moves back. Now because of that movement, is it a metaphor for the the active like social movements against oppression? Is that it? She's in control of like the fight back, the pushing forward, the progress of moving forward in society? Is that what she's trying to say? Um or is it that she has that ability to control like her response to you know, the world, the changing world, things going on in the world. You know, she bears in the tide, she can control her response to the oppression that's going on. Again, let me know in the comments what you think cuz I'm not entirely convinced, uh, by myself there. But, my instinct is going with the social movement just

because of tides moving. That sounds really straightforward, but that's that's where I'm going for. But, at the same time, I feel like because the metaphor of an ocean is being compared to her identity, if the tide is an extension of that metaphor, the tide must be tied ins to something with her identity, as well. So, yeah, let me know what you're thinking. Last stanza, and it's a good one. So, uh, we have, uh, this Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise into a daybreak that's wondrous 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. So, this being the last stanza, the structure of it has changed, and

that is going to be significant as we go through and analyze, too. The first thing I want to talk about is the historical allusion in the opening line, Leaving behind nights of terror and fear. So, this is a historical allusion in the sense that before the civil rights movement civil rights movement in the USA, racist attacks would often be at night. The KKK would go on their hunts, uh, for people to lynch at night. You had places called sundown towns, which were basically towns in America that you didn't want to be in after the sun had gone down because it was like a kind of curfew, basically, on the black people there. And if you were seen out after the sun had gone down, you could be attacked and that kind of stuff. So,

there's a kind of historical link there of associating the night with terror and fear, because that is when the attacks would happen. That is when the racism would happen. It's also, this whole stanza is a a historical allusion to Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. If you have a look at this chunk, which, oh, got way too much of my camera. There we go. Um, if you have a look at this Martin Luther King I Have a Dream speech, this is a direct quote from the speech. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. So you can see she does the same

imagery. He does joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. She does leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise into a daybreak that's wondrously clear. I rise. So she's deliberately using the similar imagery to him. It's not just that it fits with I mean it fits pretty perfectly, right? With the imagery she's used already of that natural imagery. But it also reminds us of the progress we've seen so far because Still I Rise was published in oh god I'm not going to get the year right now. It was either really late 70s or early 80s or late 80s. That kind of time frame, okay? A good like you know 10, 15, 20 years after Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. So in that sense it's about

showing that progress that has happened because of their constant rising cuz of course that's what Martin Luther King represented. Peaceful protest, constantly rising above acts of violence and oppression and all that kind of stuff. So she's using the same kind of imagery as him reminding us of his I Have a Dream speech. It also works though in its own right even if you put aside that allusion the analysis makes sense if we think about that juxtaposition in the symbolism behind night of terror and fear versus daybreak that's wondrously clear. So daybreak symbolizing like new start, new opportunity. It being wondrously clear is a metaphor for um, know how it's going to be free of challenge, free

of adversity. And that of course makes sense um, in the sense of like, you know, that's what's going to come as a result of the rising. That's what's going to come as a result of rising. But it's the progress in society and that's what it's representing. We have again, similar as we saw in the last stanza, we have that structure of single sentence of like negative, I rise, but then it has positive sentence, I rise. So, the amount of negativity is massively declined here. And again, you could say even that first line is positive in the sense that syntactical foregrounding, the first word is leaving behind nights of terror and fear. So, actually you could argue this entire stanza is is filled with that positive imagery of the

consequences of rising. But you have got that kind of constant again repetition of I rise, I rise every other line. We've then got the bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. So, that is of course again referring to Martin Luther King's speech with the dream part um, and also the hope, the hope to millions of negro slaves. We've got that uh, reference to his speech again there. But what we've also got here is interesting in that like gifts, which is plural. So, that again that celebration. We saw that before with the black ocean, that celebration of who she is, celebration with the diamond at the meeting of her thighs, celebration in the oil wells and the

gold mines, constant tone of celebrating and loving and seeing her self-worth. She's also here seeing the self-worth in her history, the ancestors, because she refers to the uh, we can think of it think think of this as being a metaphor for the um, hereditary physical qualities and like, you know, skin color, but also the qualities of perhaps like resilience and perseverance and all that kind of good stuff. So, the fact that it's plural in this metaphor is really significant in celebrating just how much she gets from her history that's really positive. You've also got that juxtaposition in the dynamic verbs of leaving behind nights of terror and fear, bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave. So,

there's a sense of something going, the negativity going, and just more positivity coming in, which is a really nice way to end the poem as well. Um and yeah, and then you have that I am the dream of the hope dream and the hope of the slave. So, that again is is harking back to racism and that particular form of oppression. And the fact that this is the last stanza really shows how important racism in particular is to this poem because that's what she wanted to end on. Um but ultimately still, the last line of the poem is, I rise, I rise, I rise. Now, I spotted a mistake, well, not a mistake, but you know, a slight I wish I could go back in time and fix that little bit in how I've been referring to I rise so far. So, I've

been saying it's repetition, which, you know, it is. But within poetry, that has a specific name because, why not? Um and it's called a refrain. Uh when you repeat specific lines over and over again in a poem, it's called a refrain. So, what we've got is this refrain, I rise, I rise, I rise, continuing and intensifying here. So, by having this tricolon refrain of I rise, I rise, I rise, it again, similar to what we've seen before, creates that almost like physical sense of actually rising. We can almost like in how we say it, we can almost feel her rising um through this poem. So, the poem ends on uh that kind of repeated idea of I rise, but of course has now changed from earlier in the poem where it was but

still, where it was facing oppression. No, all of that is gone now, leaving behind nights of terror and fear. Oppression has been completely removed from the poem at this point. And it's just focusing on her rising. And that's another important thing to note. She hasn't spoken to the you at all here. It's all been I I I I. That's also really intensified. So, it's like all the focus is on her and the progress she's making and how she's developing and how she's growing. Um so, yeah. I mean, a pretty awesome way to end the poem all in all, don't you think?