Angelou's tone changes throughout the poem, "Still I Rise," and the voice of the speaker is sometimes pained, sometimes angry, and sometimes even idealistic and hopeful. Though the specific tone changes from stanza to stanza, Angelou's overarching tone is consistently challenging and feisty, communicating to the reader the determination of the poet to make herself heard no matter how uncomfortable her audience may be with her message.
Angelou juxtaposes a series of surprising images related to financial wealth in this poem, and the jarring nature of these images are deliberate, forcing the reader to pay attention to the words on the page. The tonal shifts correspond with these images, so the reader cannot predict what image or emotion might be next. The most powerful example of this shift takes place in the middle stanzas of the poem, when the speaker describes a broken and vulnerable body, "Shoulders falling down like teardrops," only to then demand that the reader confront an image of "diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs."
Angelou's challenging tone insists that the reader of the poem feel uncomfortable. After all, the privileged set who might feel opposition to Angelou's insistence that she "rise" are perhaps too comfortable in their privelege, and it is this place of complacency that Angelou wants to disrupt with her poem.
In the opening stanza of the poem, the tone is accusatory. The speaker accuses her subject of spreading "bitter" and "twisted" lies, for instance, and of pushing her down into the "dirt." By the second stanza, however, the tone changes and the speaker becomes both confident and defiant. This is best shown by the following line in which she expresses her ability to rise up against the treatment described in the first stanza:
Does my sassiness upset you?
As the poem continues, the tone is very much celebratory. The speaker talks about her "certainty," for instance, and compares her spirit to rising "air." For the speaker, the oppressive treatment that she and other African Americans have endured has become a motivating factor: she is confident in her identity and sexuality in spite of a painful past.
The repetition of the poem's final line, "I rise," is perhaps the strongest evidence of this attitude of both celebration and defiance. By repeating these lines, she not only celebrates her achievements but also motivates anyone who reads the poem to overcome oppression.
Maya Angelou uses a tone of self-confident assertiveness in her poem “Still I Rise.” Her air of angry confidence is peppered with sarcastic humor.
She addresses the poem to her audience of oppressors by beginning with the word, “You.”
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies
There is anger in Angelou's tone, but she overrides the anger with her air of self-confidence by asking questions such as:
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
Angelou wants to know if her attitude causes the reader discomfort about the cruelty her race has endured, especially black women. There is sense of false concern for her oppressors. She inserts sarcastic humor into the poem to offset her anger. Again, she uses questions as a literary element to express her self-assuredness through sarcasm.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Angelou's repeated use of the words “I’ll rise,” and “I rise,” shows her tone of confidence. Not only will Angelou endure, she will prosper; her spirit will not be broken.
No comments:
Post a Comment