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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 7 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is the most logical description of who "You" is in line 1?
(a) A romantic partner.
(b) An unnamed oppressor.
(c) Scholars and critics.
(d) People of the past.

2. What words create a refrain in the final two stanzas of the poem?
(a) "Still I rise."
(b) "Again I rise."
(c) "I rise and rise."
(d) "I rise."

3. What technique is used in lines 7 and 8, "’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/ Pumping in my living room"?
(a) Simile.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Juxtaposition.
(d) Personification.

4. Which is the best definition of "beset" in line 6?
(a) Troubled.
(b) Inspired.
(c) Cradled.
(d) Decorated.

5. What is the rhyme scheme of the first seven stanzas?
(a) ABAC.
(b) ABCB.
(c) ABAB.
(d) ABBA.

Short Answer Questions

1. What precious stones does the speaker use to evoke beauty and value in the simile in line 27?

2. What technique does the first line of the poem, "You may write me down in history," introduce?

3. In the fourth stanza, what kind of person does the speaker ask if "you" want her to be?

4. What technique is used in line 29, "Out of the huts of history’s shame"?

5. Why is the speaker's past "rooted in pain" (line 32)?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the pattern that stanzas 2, 4, 5, and 7 have in common.

2. In the final stanza, what metaphor does the speaker use, and what does it signify?

3. What oppressive actions does the speaker suggest "you" might take, and how does she say she will respond?

4. What specific historical phenomenon does the speaker talk about rising above in the final two stanzas, and what allusion does she use to introduce the topic?

5. Why is the poem titled "Still I Rise" and not just "I Rise"--what additional idea does the word "Still" convey?

6. Describe how the final two stanzas of the poem differ from the first seven stazas.

7. What do all of the questions the speaker asks have in common?

(see the answer keys)

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