“Still I Rise” essay

Describe how techniques have been used in the text Explain how these techniques have been used to create a particular effect.

‘Still I Rise’ is a poem written by a very famous author, Maya Angelou. I will describe how techniques have been used in this poem, such as similes/metaphors, repetition and rhetorical questions. Techniques are used in this poem to create the effect of great success in almost impossible situations. ‘Still I rise’ has a lot of background story to it. It tells you the violence and horrible things Angelou has gone through. But she is so strong through it all and rises above everything and has so much success. This inspires so many people.

Simile and metaphor techniques were used in this poem to create the effect of significant achievements in when times are really tough. “I’m a black ocean” this metaphor shows how highly she rates her own power which is strong as the huge waves and infinite mass of the sea. It also shows how powerful she is by this comparison to the ocean. She can do what she wants because everyone should be able to have rights and power to follow their destiny. “Just like moon and like suns” is a simile showing how her ability to rise up to meet challenges as sure as the sun rises each day and the moon too. She will never stop because she has so much determination and nothing can crush her down and this is shown like how the certainty of the sun rising. “Shoot, cut, kill” is a metaphor which makes it clear how violent, direct and aggressive the challenges she faces in her everyday life. But this metaphor also states violent verbs which gives the reader a sense of feeling and sad emotion towards what she goes through.

The technique of using Violent Verbs in the poem create’s the effect of a cruel and harsh feel, for example, “bowed head and lowered eyes” This Violent Verb makes you picture what her body was doing and though body expression you can tell how that person felt. Bowed head and lowered eyes mean she is very miserable, but not breaking down. She is still trying to hold it in and get through the difficult times. “Up from a past that’s rooted in pain” This Violent Verb is saying that her past has been very rough and full of pain and throughout all of it she still kept going. “Sholders falling down like teardrops” this is telling you that though body language you can tell how depressed the person is feeling. This is also a simile and it compares her droopy shoulders to teardrops which is a very sad expression. These Violent Verbs gives the reader a deep feeling of this what this person is feeling. Everyone gets sad sometimes its just a part of life which means lots of people can relate to the actions and feelings.

The technique Rhetorical questions are used in the poem to create the effect of making the reader apart of the conversation and accusing the reader, making them think. “Do you want to see me broken” This Rhetorical question is saying that because you are saying all these nasty things to her is it just because you want to see her be broken. “you may shoot…you may cut… you may kill” This Rhetorical question is really trying to make you think do you really want to hurt her? And for what. This relates to things such as people trying to see another’s perspective and making them think about others. It can also be things like elections and debates, making big decisions that will affect the whole country or even the world.

‘Still I Rise’ written by Maya Angelou has great techniques all throughout the poem which includes similes/metaphors that created significant achievements in when times are really tough and violent verbs that created an excellent effect of a crawl and harsh feeling and rhetorical questions make the reader apart of the conversation and accusing the reader, making them think. This poem makes us people who live in this world more aware of things that are happening in other parts of the world and trying to make a difference to stop so much hatred.

By Jazz