Still I Rise’ is a nine-stanza poem that’s separated into uneven

sets of lines. The first seven stanzas contain four lines, known
as quatrains, stanza eight has six lines and the ninth has nine.
The first seven stanzas follow a rhyme scheme of ABCB, the
eighth: ABABCC, and the ninth: ABABCCBBB.

The title of the poem, ‘Still I Rise’ is a proclamation against the

society that tries to dominate the speaker’s voice. The speaker
or the poetic persona represents the poet’s voice. She
represents the black community as a whole.

Through this poem, she tries to break through the shackles of

domination and raises her voice to say that she and her people
are no longer mute. They have got the voice to proclaim their
rights. No matter how hard they try, she will prove to them the
abilities of black people.

The phrase, “I rise” is not about a singular uprising. It’s a

collective revolutionary voice that consists of the raging uproar
of a class, oppressed and betrayed for a long time.

The major poetic themes of this work are self-empowerment,

perseverance, and injustice. Throughout the text, the speaker,
who is commonly considered to be Angelou herself, addresses
her own oppressor. The “you” she refers to represents the
varieties of injustices that people of color, women, and all
marginalized communities have dealt with as long as history
has been recorded.

It is a lyrical poem. Maya Angelou was inspired by the struggles

of the black people, the speaker represents them as a
community, urging them to fight back against the odds of the
society as well as time.