'Still I Rise

Poetry Script - Structure
Structure of your speech

Maya Angelou’s famous poem ‘Still I Rise’ is an intriguing poem that shows the poet’s point of view on many different issues revolving around slavery and racism towards African-Americans.
Maya Angelou was born on the 24th April, 1928 and in 1978 she wrote the poem ‘Still I Rise’. She is known as the Global Renaissance Woman for being a warrior to earn equality, tolerance and peace. She herself is an African-American woman who experienced racial discrimination. Maya expresses her experiences towards these issues in her writing.
Introduction
Talk about the context of your poem, including:
The poet’s life
Important events in the time period
READ YOUR POEM
If you are doing a song, you may play some of it. However, you must still read it as if it were a poem.

Maya Angelou wrote this poem to show oppressors that no matter what they say or do, she will keep rising up. She gives a message to all African-Americans to have courage and confidence, to stand up to their oppressors and display to them that they are proud of whom they are.
Audience and purpose
The tone of the poem suggests that she is determined to get to where she wants to go and that she is proud and sure of what she is doing. The repetition of ‘I rise’ conveys that she will rise higher than the oppressor and challenge him to keep her down. But, the fact that it’s repeated shows that she has to do it more than once and it makes you feel frustrated and sorry for her. She also inspires you with her persistence to prove her point and you feel triumphant when she finally gets there.
Talk about the mood and tone of the poem.

Use evidence from the poem to make your points.
Quatrains are used for most of the poem with a rhyme scheme of ABCB which makes this poem is a ballad. But, in the last stanza it changes to emphasise the idea that she will rise. She writes, ‘Up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise’ and then later on in the stanza ‘Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise’. Here she is saying that she will move on and forget her struggles and misfortunes and become a new person who will be jubilant and untroubled.
Talk about the structure and form of the poem.

Does it have a rhyme scheme?

What is its metre (rhythmic pattern)?

Provide some examples of the poetic devices used in the poem.
What sound effects (such as assonance, alliteration, metre) are used?
Maya leaves no spaces for anyone else’s voice but her own. She silences all of her oppressors and shows them that she
Whose point of view is represented in the poem? Whose voice is heard? Whose voice is silenced?

Conclusion
Sum up the overall message of the poem.