Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” is a declaration of her dignity and resilience as a Black woman in the face of oppression. The rhyme scheme varies: in the first seven stanzas (each of which contain four lines), the rhyme scheme is abcb; in the eighth stanza, it is ababcc; and in the ninth stanza, it is ababccbbb.

Angelou builds power in her proud defiance against prejudice and cruelty by repeating “I rise” throughout the poem; this repetition culminates in a chant in the final stanza. Interestingly, the last word in the b-rhyme lines of several earlier stanzas share a perfect rhyme with the word “rise.” In the first stanza, for example, “lies” in the second line rhymes with “rise” in the fourth line. In the fourth stanza, “eyes” in second line rhymes with “cries” in the fourth line, and both words rhyme with “rise.” In the sixth stanza, “eyes” in the second line rhymes with “rise” in the fourth line.

Significantly, almost all of these words are objects and actions related to the speaker’s body. Angelou connects her entire being—physical and emotional—to the movement of rising or ascending from and above injustice and misery.

The third stanza contains an imperfect, or slant rhyme:

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

“Tides” in the second line and “rise” form a slant rhyme; the two words sound very similar but do not rhyme perfectly. Nonetheless, here, Angelou effectively compares her strength and persistence to endless and cyclical natural forces, especially powerful ocean tides.

In stanzas 2, 5, 8, and 9, words like “gloom,” “room,” “hard,” “backyard,” “shame,” “pain,” and “fear” all signify conditions from which she strives to remove herself. The last two stanzas emphasize what she is rising above and leaving behind: “history’s shame,” pain, “terror and fear,” and slavery.