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

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is used in line 21, "You may shoot me with your words"?

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

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

4. How does the speaker characterize herself in line 4?

5. Which is the best definition for "trod" in the context of line 3?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Angelou use the rhythm of her poem to create tone and shifts in tone? How does she use meter to emphasize ideas and support the poem's overall meaning? Write an essay in which you explicate and analyze the poem's rhythm. Describe how the initial meter is established and then note where this dominant meter changes. Comment on the possible purposes of both the poem's dominant meter and any changes to new metrical patterns. Support your explication and analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the poem, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

How does Angelou's use of rhyme in "Still I Rise" relate to the broader question of how she employs musical devices in this poem? What are the purposes of the rhyme scheme? How does it group and emphasize ideas, create pace and flow, and contribute to tone? How does Angelou use other musical devices, such as rhythm and repetition, (of sounds, words and phrases, grammatical patterns, and so on), to accomplish these same objectives? Write an essay in which you demonstrate how the poem's rhyme scheme and its other musical devices work together to accomplish similar objectives. 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

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.

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