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

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

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

4. What precious stones does the speaker use to evoke beauty and value in the simile in line 27?

5. What is the primary quality that the speaker's stanza eight description of a body of water is intended to convey?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Read Maya Angelou's poem "The Mothering Blackness" (available online). How does Angelou use repetition in this poem? How is it similar to and different from the way she uses repetition in "Still I Rise"? Consider the various forms of repetition in both poems as well as the purposes repetition serves. Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the use of repetition in "The Mothering Blackness" and "Still I Rise." 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 3

In "Still I Rise," how does the speaker's voice impact the reader? How does Angelou manage to create a friendly, humorous tone for her speaker despite the serious and challenging message the speaker is issuing? How is the speaker's voice confident and authoritative without becoming condescending or elitist? How do the poem's diction, details, figurative language, musical devices, and rhythm work together to create this engaging voice? Write an essay in which you analyze the speaker's voice and its impact on the reader, commenting on Angelou's likely purpose in creating such an engaging voice. 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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