Geography
Compare ‘Still I rise’ by Maya Angelou and Charlotte O’Neil’s Song’ by Fiona Farrell
In this essay I intend to analyse two poems that I have recently studied ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou and ‘Charlotte O’Neil’s Song’ by Fiona Farrell, Both poems have been written in the last 30 years by modern female writers. The poems talk about slavery and oppression. ‘Still I rise’ is a poem about Black oppression in the 1920s. ‘Charlotte O’Neil’s Song’ is based upon a true event, but tells the story through fictional characters.
Analysis of ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou
‘Still I Rise’ is a protest poem that talks about the slavery, oppression, dreams and hopes of black slaves. The poem has nine stanzas the first seven are all four lines long and have a rhyming pattern of ABCB, the last two stanzas are longer which shows the significance of the message portrayed in those two stanzas. ‘Still I rise’ is an upbeat, defiant poem with an upbeat and fast rhythm. Angelou uses similes to convey how black people were badly treated by white people, e.g.
‘You may trod me down in the very dirt,
But still like dust ill rise’
The term ‘treated like dirt’ is a common phrase most people are familiar with and I think Maya has repackaged it in this 1920’s way, but we can still relate to the sentiment and gritty issue of what it feels like on a personal level to be treated with contempt on a daily basis. If you go back and look at this sentence again May says ‘you may’ not ‘you have’ turning this into a more positive statement.
I also wonder if the reference to dirt as a simile has a double meaning, also refering to her colour. Is Maya
Like dust is very interesting when you really begin to think about it. When you try and clean away dust it gets everywhere, covers everything, you think you have got rid of it, but later you come back to find it has resettled.
In stanza two Angelou asks ‘Does my sassiness upset you?’ which at the time would have affected white
In this essay I intend to analyse two poems that I have recently studied ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou and ‘Charlotte O’Neil’s Song’ by Fiona Farrell, Both poems have been written in the last 30 years by modern female writers. The poems talk about slavery and oppression. ‘Still I rise’ is a poem about Black oppression in the 1920s. ‘Charlotte O’Neil’s Song’ is based upon a true event, but tells the story through fictional characters.
Analysis of ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou
‘Still I Rise’ is a protest poem that talks about the slavery, oppression, dreams and hopes of black slaves. The poem has nine stanzas the first seven are all four lines long and have a rhyming pattern of ABCB, the last two stanzas are longer which shows the significance of the message portrayed in those two stanzas. ‘Still I rise’ is an upbeat, defiant poem with an upbeat and fast rhythm. Angelou uses similes to convey how black people were badly treated by white people, e.g.
‘You may trod me down in the very dirt,
But still like dust ill rise’
The term ‘treated like dirt’ is a common phrase most people are familiar with and I think Maya has repackaged it in this 1920’s way, but we can still relate to the sentiment and gritty issue of what it feels like on a personal level to be treated with contempt on a daily basis. If you go back and look at this sentence again May says ‘you may’ not ‘you have’ turning this into a more positive statement.
I also wonder if the reference to dirt as a simile has a double meaning, also refering to her colour. Is Maya
Like dust is very interesting when you really begin to think about it. When you try and clean away dust it gets everywhere, covers everything, you think you have got rid of it, but later you come back to find it has resettled.
In stanza two Angelou asks ‘Does my sassiness upset you?’ which at the time would have affected white