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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 is the rhyme scheme of the first seven stanzas?

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

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. 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?

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

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 2

How is water used symbolically in "Still I Rise"? What forms of water are mentioned? Do they all seem to function in the same way, or is water operating in more than one way in the poem? Which forms of water is the speaker herself compared to? What do these forms of water have in common? How is the idea of "rising" water in this poem contrasted with the "falling" water represented by the image of teardrops? How do common literary meanings of water figure into this poem's symbolism, if at all? Write an essay that takes and defends a position on the symbolic meaning of water in "Still I Rise." 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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