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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. Which is the best definition of "beset" in line 6?

2. Where does the speaker say she obtained her gifts?

3. Who is the author of "Still I Rise"?

4. What body of water does the speaker claim to be in the eighth stanza?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

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

Is it possible to make an argument that even though the final two stanzas seem more focused on the speaker, they are also paradoxically less focused on the speaker? In what way do the first seven stanzas focus on individual characteristics of the speaker, and how do the final two stanzas shift this focus to the speaker as a representative of something larger than any one individual? Write an essay that makes an argument about how shifts in technical and content choices in the final two stanzas work together to alter the poem's focus from a personal disagreement to a historical one. 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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