Theme Of Resilience In Still I Rise

The theme of resilience is something that is constantly explored in literature. It is a powerful way of illustrating toughness, and creates many emotions such as hope, power or even love. The poems ‘Bright Lights of Savajevo’ and ‘Still I Rise’ are no exception to this. Also, with the theme of survival. It also shows how hard it is to speak up and do something for your own rights. In ‘Still I Rise’, the writer is constantly being knocked down by the white oppressor. But the poet continues to get up and show that she will not give up, under any circumstances. In ‘Bright Lights of Savajevo’, people are trying to continue with everyday life, even though snipers and bombers are killing hundreds of people. And when the night falls, unity is created …show more content…
Structurally, it is written in quatrains (four lines each) with seven stanzas; but also, with an extra two between six to nine lines. The poem has a high extent of organisation. The last two stanzas changes because it seems like there is a change of subject, character, place or time in the two stanzas. Also, we see the repetition of the word “rise”, which reminded the reader of the resilience she has in herself. The a, b, c, b rhyming rhythm also gets the reader focused on the word “rise” as it is emphasised on it by the poet. Angelou main language technique is figurative language which is used to compare the poet to the white …show more content…
The first sentence hits off as “you may write me down in history.” The use of direct address alerts the reader that the poet is verbally in conflict with another group or person and as we read further down, we find out this is the white oppressor. The use of metaphor “write me down in history” illustrates that she does care what they say about all the black people, and she knows that history is only written by victors who wins battles through resilience. She also has got embedded in her mind that if she becomes victorious, the “bitter, twisted lies” would be removed. Here, the poet creates an impression that she is in a physical conflict between another opposition and they are trying their best to survive everything that the opposition throws at them. And they are both trying to achieve the goal of last man standing which determines who is victorious. However, Angelou knows that the white oppressor has the upper hand, so she would be knocked down quite easily. The poet makes this clear as she knows that they will “trod [her] in the very dirt… But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” The use of word “trod” is a colloquial which illustrates to the reader that she doesn’t care if the white oppressor shoves her below her foot. And to add more emphasis to this, she uses the adjective, “very” to push it even more and show that she is put right at the bottom of society having that