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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. What technique is used in line 29, "Out of the huts of history’s shame"?
(a) Juxtaposition.
(b) Allegory.
(c) Oxymoron.
(d) Allusion.

2. Which technique is frequently used at the beginnings of stanzas?
(a) Internal rhyme.
(b) Cacophony.
(c) Rhetorical question.
(d) Onomatopoeia.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the most logical description of who "You" is in line 1?

2. Which two things does the final stanza use to represent the past and present?

3. In line 17, what kind of a person is described by the word "haughtiness"?

4. What kind of "certainty" does the speaker claim to have in line 10?

5. In the final quatrain, what does the speaker wonder about upsetting "you" with?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. 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?

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

(see the answer keys)

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