The first time I heard Maya Angelou recite this , I almost cried. It was a two-minute that I’m sure did no justice to the live performance–but it still gave me the shivers, how she spoke with so much strength and conviction. In the video, Angelou conveys a sense of resilience that cannot be broken. And absorbing her work that first time made me feel that I could not be broken, either. Her words made people feel alive, electrified. Her words spoke to the power of women everywhere.
Published in the late summer of 1978, “Still I Rise” has become a well-loved gem of both African-American and feminist literature. It’s a nine-stanza poem separated into uneven sets of lines, conjuring luxurious imagery of rich oil wells, celestial bodies, and gold mines in one’s backyard. Each line, rhyme, and syllable rolls off your tongue like heaven when you read it out loud.
The poem, as conveyed by its title, is about confidence, self-respect, resilience. This is something that Angelou learned as she grew up–a well-documented narrative that is masterfully-explored in her memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (as well as in the memoirs that came after this). It speaks to the strength that Angelou learned from her life experiences and from the women who raised her. The poem essentially reminds us that hardship will be overcome, that women’s voices were never meant to be suppressed; that we can be confident, sassy, assertive, funny, sexy, haughty, and everything else–and do not have to apologize for it. I especially love these two stanzas here:
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 surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
The first stanza acts as a powerful climax to a mighty poem. And the second claims a woman’s sexuality as her own, not for anyone else’s taking. It embodies the boldness and tenacity of it all.
The victim will rise up, the slave will overcome adversity, the woman will become all she was meant to be, and more. We have come a long way. But there is still work to be done. As long as prejudice and bigotry still exist–though they may exist in more “subtle” ways than before–we need to continually strive for better. “Still I Rise,” though written forty-four years ago, is still so relevant today. Throughout the entire poem, the lines “I rise” are repeated like a mantra, attesting to the power and strength of Blackness as well as womanhood. The “I” referenced in the poem is not singular–it acts as a collective voice that consists of all those who have been oppressed before. Like dust, like air, like hopes springing high, we will rise.
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Maya Angelou serves as an example of a great poet who used her words to empower others. This Women’s History Month, we can also celebrate the poets who have come before and after her. I have linked just a few of the poems I have discovered and enjoyed below.
“” by Lucille Clifton
“” by Emily Dickinson
“” by Brenda Shaughnessy
If you’d like to explore further, you can also find more in this and this of contemporary women poets. I hope their words remind you of the hope, strength, and reliance of the incredible women in our lives.
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