Analyzing Maya Angelou's 'Still I Rise' - Understanding Main Idea and Literary Devices, Slides of History

Download Analyzing Maya Angelou's 'Still I Rise' - Understanding Main Idea and Literary Devices and more Slides History in PDF only on Docsity! Sophomore Level 1 (1021) Remote Learning Assignment – Week of April 27, 2020 Analyzing a Poem This week I would like to share one of my favorite poems with you by one of my favorite poets, Maya Angelou. I’m asking you to read the poem carefully and analyze Angelou’s MAIN IDEA (theme) as well as the way she STRUCTURED the poem in order to make her main idea clear. This link will take you to information about Maya Angelou and her life, which you should read first to help you understand her perspective in the poem better. https://poets.org/poet/maya- angelou Read the poem and then answer the questions. Look up words that you don’t know before trying to analyze the poem. Use the “Poetry Terms to Know” handout on Schoology (Essential Handouts Folder) if you need a reminder about a specific literary term. (e.g. Stanza) Make sure your answers are thoughtful, cited properly, and polished for correct grammar. Example of citing the poem: The speaker of the poem says, “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear / I rise” (Angelou 31-32). Still I Rise By Maya Angelou, 1928 - 2014 You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. 5 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. Just like moons and like suns, 10 With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? 15 Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines 20 Diggin’ in my own backyard. 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. 25 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, 30 Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise 35 Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.