Maya Angelou

Delta CollegeProfessor Minnis

Maya Angelou• Maya Angelou, originally known as Marguerite Ann Johnson, is an

82 year old African American woman.

• She was born on April 4th 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri.

• At a young age she was raped.

• She was mute for five years.

• Read a lot of books.

• She struggled against the odds of being black at a time when prejudice was at its height.

Maya Angelou

• She dropped out of high school and became the first African American female cable car conductor.

• Went back to high school to graduate.

• Gave birth to her son Guy when she was seventeen. Worked as a waitress and cook.

• When her grandmother died grief hit her hard and inspired her with manifest.

• Won a scholarship to study drama and dance.

• In 1957 she recorded her first album Calypso Lady.

Maya Angelou• She traveled around Africa writing, editing and

teaching as a result, she became fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic and Fanti, a West African language.

• In 1993 she wrote and recited a poem at the presidential inaugural ceremony for Bill Clinton—a performance for which she won a Grammy for Best Non-Musical Album.

• She is a Tony-nominated actress.

• Today she has written over 20 books.

Maya Angelou as an actress.

1993 presidential inaugural ceremony for Bill Clinton On the Pulse of Morning.

Still I Rise You may write me down in

historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?'Cause I walk like I've got oil wellsPumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,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?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 minesDiggin' in my own back yard.

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.

Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surpriseThat I dance like I've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs?

I rise.

Angelou Reading

Out of the huts of history's shameI riseUp from a past that's rooted in painI riseI'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that's miraculously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the hope and the dream of the slave.I riseI riseI rise.

This is a powerful poem about the survival against great hardship. It is about fighting back against racial prejudice and the leftovers of slavery that black Americans have endured for many years. You could also see it as a powerful statement of intent against the struggles Angelou experienced as a child.

The poem has a song-like simplicity. The repetition of the title is like a chorus and the final stanza is a triumphant refrain

You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.

harsh, aggressive adjectives representing the ruling white classes who misrepresented the blacks – plays on the idea that history is not necessarily factual – someone had to write it in the first place and they could be biased or racist

drive-word – change in tone: she is powerful and resilient; christ-like imagery or like a phoenix in this simile rhyme scheme: abcb

By addressing the reader directly from the start, Angelou forces us to consider ourselves as racist or oppressive

Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?'Cause I walk like I've got oil wellsPumping in my living room.

‘sassiness’ – confidence, charisma

rhetorical questions directed at the reader

simile - powerful, confident imagery

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

triumphant tone

similes – inevitability that she will survive prejudice

continued repetition of title – reads like a song’s chorus

Did you want to see me broken?Bowed head and lowered eyes?Shoulders falling down like teardrops.Weakened by my soulful cries.

images of pain and suffering. The opposite of the forceful similes earlier in the poem – important to note this contrast: where she was strong and powerful before, she is now weak and submissive thanks to the prejudice she had faced

Does my haughtiness offend you?Don't you take it awful hard'Cause I laugh like I've got gold minesDiggin' in my own back yard.

‘haughtiness’ – pride and confidence

this stanza returns us to the confident narrator of the earlier stanzas

‘gold mines’ – just like ‘oil wells’ in stanza two are symbols of wealth – something black Americans were not able to have for themselves. They would be employed to work in such places as oil fields and gold mines but not share in any of the wealth