Student Question
How does Angelou represent resilience in two poems from And Still I Rise?
Quick answer:
In Maya Angelou's collection And Still I Rise, resilience is a central theme that she expresses through imagery and metaphor. Being both a woman and an African American, Angelou's experience of facing oppression and rising above it is prevalent in all of her work.
Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise,” from the similarly titles collection And Still I Rise, is brimming with images of resilience. Every stanza is an example of the level of resilience she possesses, both as a person of color and as a woman. The poem "Still I Rise," addresses her oppressors directly and inspires readers to focus on her resilience and not on the gaze of the oppressor. She writes:
Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surpriseThat I dance like I've got diamondsAt 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.
The imagery of a woman repeatedly dying coupled with the innocence and hope of children paints a vivid metaphor for healing and resilience. She uses "veins" to evoke the suffering of her ancestors and acknowledges that the same blood flows inside of her. But the "opening" is like the "fists of sleeping children," which represents a new hope for the future and a desire to fight for justice. She has a "memory of old tombs" but exclaims "Rotting flesh and worms do / Not convince me against the challenge." She is determined to rise above the horrific treatment her ancestors faced as slaves and the discrimination she has faced as a black woman. Though the odds are perhaps against her, she refuses to forfeit. She closes the poem with "I keep dying, because I love to live." This turn of phrase further illustrates her resilience, as she willingly endures pain and suffering to achieve the sweetness of freedom.I keep on dying again.
Veins collapse, opening like the
Small fists of sleeping
Children.
How does Angelou present resilience in "Still I Rise"?
It's important to note that Angelou views resilience as her legacy. After all, she is "the dream and the hope of the slave." Her ancestors have transferred a sense of survival and the ability to face the toughest adversities through their collective experience. By alluding to her legacy, Angelou touches on American history that is not just a story of struggle—it is a story of overcoming. In the face of adversity, the speaker of this poem brings "the gifts that [her] ancestors gave" her: strength, hope, and resilience.
The repetition of "I rise" seven times in the final two stanzas alone also serves as a testament to faith in resiliency. The words become an echo that hearken back to her history and a mantra to guide her in the present. In those final two stanzas, the audience of the poem shifts from an unspoken "you" who is addressed initially to become more of a personal reflection. This need to "rise" is the inner soul of the speaker, and the repetition becomes the heartbeat of the poem's closing.
The poem also utilizes powerful similes to convey a theme of resilience. When facing adversity, the speaker will rise "like dust," "like hopes," and "like air." This use of figurative language conveys the impossibility of being confined and the enduring power of hope.
All of these elements work together to create a bold and confident tone that does not cower in the face of hardship. The speaker's resilience draws from the history of her ancestors and gives her a resolute determination to confront those who try to oppress her.
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