Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou 	Maya Angelou
 	
Subject: 	Literature III
Life Span: 	1928-2014
Work(s) Analysed:	And Still I RisePhenomenal Woman
Chronology 	Chronology
Previous: 	Allen Ginsberg
Next: 	Sandra Cisneros
==Biography==
==Historical & Cultural Context==
==Bibliography==
==Works==
===And Still I Rise (1978)===
1. You may write me down in history
2. With your bitter, twisted lies,
3. You may trod me in the very dirt
4. But still, like dust, I'll rise.
5. Does my sassiness upset you?
6. Why are you beset with gloom?
7. ’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
8. Pumping in my living room.
9. Just like moons and like suns,
10. With the certainty of tides,
11. Just like hopes springing high,
12. Still I'll rise.
13. Did you want to see me broken?
14. Bowed head and lowered eyes?
15. Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
16. Weakened by my soulful cries?
17. Does my haughtiness offend you?
18. Don't you take it awful hard
19. ’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
20. Diggin’ in my own backyard.
21. You may shoot me with your words,
22. You may cut me with your eyes,
23. You may kill me with your hatefulness,
24. But still, like air, I’ll rise.
25. Does my sexiness upset you?
26. Does it come as a surprise
27. That I dance like I've got diamonds
28. At the meeting of my thighs?
29. Out of the huts of history’s shame
30. I rise
31. Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
32. I rise
33. I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
34. Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
35. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
36. I rise
37. Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
38. I rise
39. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
40. I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
41. I rise
42. I rise
43. I rise.
===Phenomenal Woman (1978)===
1. Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
2. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
3. But when I start to tell them,
4. They think I’m telling lies.
5. I say,
6. It’s in the reach of my arms,
7. The span of my hips, 
8. The stride of my step, 
9. The curl of my lips. 
10. I’m a woman
11. Phenomenally.
12. Phenomenal woman, 
13. That’s me.
14. I walk into a room
15. Just as cool as you please, 
16. And to a man,
17. The fellows stand or
18. Fall down on their knees. 
19. Then they swarm around me,
20. A hive of honey bees. 
21. I say,
22. It’s the fire in my eyes, 
23. And the flash of my teeth, 
24. The swing in my waist, 
25. And the joy in my feet. 
26. I’m a woman
27. Phenomenally.
28. Phenomenal woman,
29. That’s me.
30. Men themselves have wondered 
31. What they see in me.
32. They try so much
33. But they can’t touch
34. My inner mystery.
35. When I try to show them, 
36. They say they still can’t see. 
37. I say,
38. It’s in the arch of my back, 
39. The sun of my smile,
40. The ride of my breasts,
41. The grace of my style.
42. I’m a woman
43. Phenomenally.
44. Phenomenal woman,
45. That’s me.
46. Now you understand
47. Just why my head’s not bowed. 
48. I don’t shout or jump about
49. Or have to talk real loud. 
50. When you see me passing,
51. It ought to make you proud.
52. I say,
53. It’s in the click of my heels, 
54. The bend of my hair, 
55. the palm of my hand, 
56. The need for my care. 
57. ’Cause I’m a woman
58. Phenomenally.
59. Phenomenal woman,
60. That’s me.
==Intro Paragraph==
African Americans have a long history of suffering and fighting in the United States. Since the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War (1861-1865), black people have been claiming their rights as legal citizens in the country. Even though some rights were granted legally, in practice they continued encountering limitations to live a free life in America. The Jim Crow era, which lasted until 1964, approximately, enforced racial segregation in some regions of the country, especially in the South. Years of injustice and the hostile atmosphere sparked the Civil Rights Movement, which aimed at ending discrimination and gaining racial equality. Activists from different fields such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Rosa Parks raised their voices taking part in the movement which, in 1964, culminated with the passing of the Civil Right Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In the field of literature, African American activist, actress, writer and poet Maya Angelou (1928-2014) advocated for the cause of black Americans in the country. “Still I Rise” is a nine-stanza poem published in 1978 in the collection of poems And Still I Rise, in which the speaker celebrates black pride. In a sarcastic tone, the poem reflects the disdain suffered by African Americans and highlights the strength and power of the black population.
Body 1: History of oppression
-Sarcasm/Irony
-Direct address and rhetorical questions
-White people's attitude towards African Americans
Body 2: Black pride, defiance, resilience
-Metaphorical language
-Similes
-Reinforcement of ideas by means of refrain and anaphora
-Black people's power and value
===MLA citation===
Angelou, Maya. "Still I Rise." 1978. The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. Random House, 1994. pp. 163-164.
Angelou, Maya. "Phenomenal Woman." 1978. The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. Random House, 1994. pp. 130-131.
==Sources==
Overview 	Overview 	Overview
Literature 	Literature II 	Wilfred Owen · John M. Synge · T.S. Eliot · Joseph Conrad · Virginia Woolf · Stevie Smith · Dylan Thomas · Philip Larkin · Seamus Heaney · Benjamin Zephaniah · Nadine Gordimer · Leanne Shapton
Literature 	Literature III	Pre-colonial & Puritan · St. John de Crevecoeur · Edgar Allan Poe · Ralph Waldo Emerson · Walt Whitman · Emily Dickinson · Kate Chopin · Mark Twain · Ezra Pound · Ernest Hemingway · Langston Hughes · Robert Frost · William Faulkner · Arthur Miller · Allen Ginsberg · Maya Angelou · Sandra Cisneros · Paul Auster · Jonathan Foer
Perspectives	Unit 1 	Rise of Democratic Ideas · Global Interdependence · World Religions · Eastern and Western worlds
Perspectives	Unit 2 	An age of democracy and progress · U.S. Westward expansion and Civil War · The New Imperialism
Perspectives	Unit 3 	China and Japan · U.S. economic imperialism · World War I · The Golden Door
Perspectives	Unit 4 	Revolutions in Russia · Totalitarianism · Postwar uncertainty · The Roaring Twenties · A worldwide depression · Fascism rises in Europe · World War II
Perspectives	Unit 5 	The Cold War · Civil Rights Movement