What imagery is used in "Still I Rise"?

The imagery in "Still I Rise" is largely visual. This means that it describes how things look or objects that we might take in with our sense of sight (rather than our any of our other senses). In the second stanza, the speaker claims, "I walk like I've got oil wells / Pumping in my living room." This is figurative, of course, as she does not actually have oil wells in her living room, but the imagery is quite clear and allows us to conjure up an almost amusing mental picture of such a scene in our heads.

In the fourth stanza, she asks her audience if they want to "see [her] broken" with "Bowed head and lowered eyes," and this creates another visual image of a person whose slumped body language conveys their sadness and suffering. We can see them in our mind's eye as a result of this vivid description.

In the seventh and penultimate stanza, the speaker compares herself to a "black ocean, leaping and wide," and this is also a vivid visual image. We can certainly imagine how a huge black-hued ocean that fills the horizon, with waves that seem to leap up powerfully from its surface, would look. Finally, in the last stanza, the narrator says that she is rising "Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear," and this is yet another visual image of a cloudless sunrise after a pitch-dark night.

What types of figurative language are used in "Still I Rise"?

The poem is written in the second-person perspective, meaning that the speaker addresses the reader directly as “You.” This word is, significantly, the first word of the poem, and it is repeated nine more times throughout the poem. This is of course an example of repetition. The speaker repeatedly uses this form of direct address so as to position the readers as her accusers and oppressors. In this way, the reader is compelled to question their own complicity in the speaker’s oppression.

There is also throughout the poem a recurring motif of natural imagery. For example, in stanza 1, the speaker says that she will rise “like dust”; in stanza 6, she declares that she will rise “like air”; and in stanza 8, she says that she is “a black ocean, leaping and wide.” The simile in the first two quotations, and the metaphor in the third, all imply that the speaker is as powerful and as relentless as the elements of earth, air, and water respectively. This recurring motif of natural imagery is also evident in reference to “moons and…suns” and “tides.”

Angelou also uses colloquial language throughout the poem. For example, there are contractions such as “Don’t” and “’Cause,” and there are colloquial phrases like “awful hard,” and “I’ve got gold mines / Diggin’ in my own backyard.” These informal, colloquial expressions evoke a clear, personal voice. The feeling behind the poem thus seems more authentic than it might otherwise, and the connection between the speaker and the reader also, as a result of the colloquial voice of the speaker, feels more direct.

The speaker says, "You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies"; this line employs metonymy, when something associated with a thing is substituted for that thing.  No one can actually write her down, but people can write down her life's story and the story of individuals like her.  Further, this line, addressed to "You," shows how this poem makes use of apostrophe, when the speaker addresses something or someone who is absent, dead, or cannot respond.  

When the speaker says, "still, like dust, I'll rise," she uses a simile, a comparison of two unalike things using the word like or as.  She compares herself and her ability to persevere despite the odds against her to the way dust rises.

Here are some more similes: "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."  First, the speaker compares her walk to the stride of people who have lots of money and power.  Then, she compares her ability to rise to the certainty of the sun and moon rising each day and night.  Finally, she compares her ability to rise to hopes, which often rise even when it seems as though they should not.

Here is another excerpt containing similes: "Shoulders falling down like teardrops"; "Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines / Diggin' in my own backyard."  First, she says that "you" want to see her give up, with her shoulders drooping and sad.  Then she compares her laugh to the laugh of someone, again, with lots of money and power.  She draws attention to her own power with such a simile.

Then the speaker uses metaphors, comparisons of two unalike things where the poet says that one thing is another: "You may shoot me with your words, / You may cut me with your eyes."  Here, she compares "your" cruel words to guns and dirty looks to knives.   The speaker uses another simile in the line, "But still, like air, I'll rise."

She uses another simile in the lines, "I dance like I've got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs."  She implies the value of her sex, rather than denigrating it.  When she calls herself "a black ocean, leaping and wide," she employs another metaphor to show her power and expansiveness.  

In the first stanza, the author uses figurative speech to illustrate oppression, and her response to it. 

You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

The image of someone being ground into the dirt is painfully evocative. It transmits a feeling of degradation and helplessness to the reader. However, the next line asserts that "like dust," she will rise. By using figurative language that is similar to the word used in the previous line, "dirt," the author seems to be showing herself transforming her situation by using the tools available to her. By comparing herself to something similar to the thing that oppressed her (dust being a component of dirt) she shows how she uses the oppression to become resilient. The use of the word "dust" also indicates how something generally considered dirty or useless can be used to rise above challenges and become stronger.

Here is another example of figurative language in "Still I 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.

The following quote uses the same structure and type of figurative language as the former:

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.

The metaphor of oil wells and gold mines are a perfect example of figurative language in this poem. Obviously, the author does not really have an "oil well" in her living room. However, the use of this type of language tells us that the author is feeling a carefree and ecstatic feeling. She does not care about the feelings of those who are offended or upset by her race. Angelou uses this type of language to tell us that she has inherent self-worth and confidence, as a response to the hate of others. She uses wealth symbols specifically to show how much she values these traits.

There is a significant amount of figurative language in "Still I Rise." There are several important similes that characterize the speaker's empowerment. Similes are comparisons of two unalike things that make use of the words like or as. In the second stanza, the speaker says, "I walk like I've got oil wells / Pumping in my living room," suggesting that she walks like she is rich and important, with confidence.

Similarly, in the fifth stanza, she says, "I laugh like I've got gold mines / Diggin' in my own backyard," suggesting that she laughs with confidence and abandon, without concern for how she will be perceived by others. Finally, in the seventh stanza, she says, "I dance like I've got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs," suggesting that she values her sexuality and feminine vitality, finding herself beautiful and worthy. Again, she conducts herself as though she feels secure and sure of who she is and needs no validation from others, who obviously judge her. She values herself even when others do not.

There are also a number of metaphors, comparisons of two unalike things in which one thing is said to be the other, in this poem. In the sixth stanza, the speaker compares the words, looks, and hate of her adversaries to various kinds of physical weapons: bullets, knives, and any other kind of weapon that could kill her, respectively.

In the penultimate stanza, she compares herself, via metaphor, to a "black ocean, leaping and wide," suggesting that she holds immense power that cannot be controlled, just as humans cannot control the ocean or bend it to their will. Finally, she compares the past to "nights of terror and fear" and the future to a "daybreak that's wondrously clear," suggesting that history, for Black Americans, has been painful and filled with horrors but that the future will be brighter and filled with hope.

What metaphors are used in "Still I Rise"?

In the sixth stanza of "Still I Rise," the speaker continues to address the same audience she has addressed in the first five stanzas—white people who oppress Black people—using a series of metaphors. A metaphor is a comparison of two unalike things where one thing is said to be another.

For example, she says, "You may shoot me with your words," comparing the hateful words of her would-be attackers to damaging bullets shot from guns. She also says, "You may cut me with your eyes," comparing the looks given by these attackers to blades, and "You may kill me with your hatefulness," comparing their hate to some weapon that could physically kill her. Each of these three comparisons is a separate metaphor.

Later in the poem, the speaker uses another metaphor, saying, "I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, / Welling and swelling I bear in the tide." This metaphor emphasizes her power and her vastness, suggesting that it is in her very nature to rise like the tide and that she is as unstoppable as the tide.

She also compares American history, with its past of chattel slavery, to "nights of terror and fear" and the future to a "daybreak that's wondrously clear"—two more metaphors. The speaker believes that she is precisely what that enslaved person, hundreds of years ago, dreamed and hoped for: a free Black woman with confidence and power.