in brotherhood no matter their race. He is confident that this will happen if people hold on to their faith, continue to hope, and stand, pray, and struggle together, knowing that their freedom will come.

Angelou and King both drive home their main points through repetition. Just as Angelou repeats "I rise," King repeats "I have a dream." King also repeats "Let freedom ring." Both are creating a cadence, a rhythm to express their ideas and to drive their hope and confidence firmly into their audience's minds—in expectation, perhaps, that the audience will make those phrases their own and come to believe in them.

Unlike King, however, Angelou often assumes a challenging, even taunting, tone. "Does my sassiness upset you?" she asks (line 4). Well, too bad, she implies. "Do you want to see me broken?" she continues (line 13). Not a chance, she seems to respond. She feels like she has "oil wells" in her living room and "gold mines" in her backyard, and nothing can bring her down. No one can triumph over her. She will rise.

King is rather more pessimistic, or at least more realistic. He realizes that his people, even a hundred years after the abolishment of slavery, are still not free. They still live in poverty, still hide in exile, and still experience shame. Yet he does not dwell on these negative images for long. There is hope, even in struggle and pain. He may not have oil wells and gold mines, but he has devotion and dignity and confidence and a dream.