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

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

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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. 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

Among Maya Angelou's many contributions to American literature and culture are her inspirational speeches and interviews. Choose and watch one of her speeches or interviews from the dozens available online. What are the key ideas that she expresses in the video? What rhetorical strategies does she use to make her ideas appealing and memorable? How does this compare to the ideas she expresses in "Still I Rise"? Do you see any strategies in common between the prose in the video and the poetry of "Still I Rise"? Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the content and style of her remarks in the video you chose with the content and style of "Still I Rise." Support your observations with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from both sources, and be sure to cite borrowed language in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

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.

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 935 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample