View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 7 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What techniques are used in line 19, "’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines"?

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

4. What is the rhyme scheme of the first seven stanzas?

5. Which technique is used in line 9, "Just like moons and like suns"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read Lucille Clifton's poem "won't you celebrate with me" (available online). What does Clifton mean by "babylon," in line 4? What claim is she making about oppression and triumph? How does she also use natural resources in her poem? Is her speaker's voice similar to or different from the speaker in "Still I Rise"? Why? Write an essay in which you discuss similarities and differences in the way Clifton and Angelou approach the theme of survival against oppression. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout both poems, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Diamonds, oil, and gold are all valuable resources that originally come from deep inside the earth. What does this suggest about the confidence and pride that the speaker feels? What might the earth represent in these similes? Someone has to extract these resources in order for humans to use them, but not all people have access to or benefit equally from things like diamond mines, oil wells, and gold mines. What might the mines and wells represent in these similes? Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about what the speaker is using these similes to illustrate about power, resources, confidence, and race. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the poem, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

How does "Still I Rise" employ apostrophe to challenge not just an unnamed oppressor but the poem's reader, as well? How does the speaker establish that the poem is an apostrophe? What clues are there about whom the apostrophe is addressed to? Is it possible that the reader is the intended audience of this apostrophe? What choices Angelou makes indicate whether she wants the reader to identify with the speaker or with the unnamed oppressor? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about whether the reader is a bystander to the poem's apostrophe or is, in fact, the oppressor being addressed. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the poem, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 893 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample