Literary Analysis Of Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

In the poem, “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou the author uses metaphors to communicate her point of view as slave’s hopes and dreams against opposition. She also uses her metaphors to explain how they even prevailed against these challenges. 

The literary device, metaphors are used in the poem “Still I Rise” to communicate the tyranny slaves have to  struggle with. The first instance was in line 4 “But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”(Angelou,4)This shows a metaphor comparing the hopes and dreams of the slaves' resilience to rise similarly to dust rising. This ties back to the main message of the poem of her ancestors' challenging past. A second instance of an example of a metaphor is on line 15 “Shoulders falling down like teardrops”(Angelou,15) This is used in the context of asking a third party or group if they would like to see her broken down and distressed. This connects back to the main theme of her ancestors' hopes and dreams being oppressed by others. A third instance of metaphors in the poem is “Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard.” This ties back to my second point on the analysis, which is how Maya Angelou uses metaphors to explain how her point of view of her slave ancestors hopes and dreams prevailed against these challenges. This metaphor explains how regardless of how what happens they still laugh and march on with a smile. These three instances of metaphors in the poem “Still I Rise” expresses the theme of the poem of metaphors being used to communicate slaves' hopes and dreams.

Conclusively, in the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou the author tends to use metaphors to get the point across as her slaves hopes and dreams go through hardships as well as using metaphors to show how the slaves persevered through these instances.