Here in my Presentation you can find influence of postcolonial literature in Maya Angelou's poem ' Still I Rise.' In each stanza her determination reflects by using satirical words against her oppressor.

1. Name:- Hitaxi H Bhatt.
Roll No:- 03.
Semester :- 03.
Paper No:- 11 ( The Postcolonial Literature.)
Topic:- Influence of postcolonial Literature on Maya Angelou’s
poem ‘ Still I Rise’.
Submitted To:- Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar
University.

2. • And Still I Rise is made up of 32 short poems, divided into
three parts.
• First sound of freedom that represent in ‘Caged Bird.’
• Second the sound of Equality represent in ‘Equality.’
• Third sounds of Racism that ‘Alone and Still I Rise.’
• Three sounds of African-American that reflect in Maya
Angelou’s poems.
• One big issue about race is African-Americans were got the
racial discrimination and they became the minority in the
United States.
• Sounds of Minority reflects in her poem.

3. You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
(Stanza 01)
• nothing and no one could
oppress her or keep her down.
• history books saw “twisted lies”.
• she is trodden in the dirt, that
she will rise like dust.

4. • Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil
wells
Pumping in my living room.
(Stanza 02)
• Ask a question about her tone
• People around her beset with
gloom when she succeed
• As a woman she is succeeded
in her life.
• Oil wells pumping in my living
room symbolizes success as a
woman writer.

5. • Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
(Stanza 03)
• Compares herself with moon
and sun. as they affected by
tides.
• she has no choice but rise up
out of her suffering.
• Society might to keep her
oppressed but it is in her
nature to rise up against
oppression.
• Just as the tides to respond the
moon.

6. • Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like
teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
(Stanza 04)
• She knows that her own success
is received with bitterness by
the racist people in her society.
• she directs these questions at the
society that has long tried to
keep her oppressed.
• They did not want to see a
black woman rise up out of the
oppression of her society and
succeed.

7. • You may shoot me with your
words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your
hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
( Stanza 06)
• No matter what it does to
oppress her. It will not
succeed.
• Anything can’t be prevail
against her with words or
looks.
• Or if it managed to have her
killed because of its
hatefulness.
• She claims that she will still
rise like air.

8. • Leaving behind nights of terror
and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s
wondrously
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my
ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of
the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
(Stanza 09)
• She intends to leave behind all
the effects of slavery and history
of oppression to rise above it.
• She claims that she leave behind
the terror and fear and rise
above the pain and the
oppression.
• Repetition of words ‘I Rise’
suggest her determination
towards oppressors.

9. • The poem, Still I Rise, is not only a proclamation of her
own determination to rise above society, but was also a call
to others to live above the society in which they were
brought up.
• she can give voice to hundreds of those who were
oppressed.
• The poem is extremely inspirational and empowering.
• It is motivating and reminds us that if we respect ourselves
then the world will have no control over whom or what we
are.

10. Thank You.

11. •Bibliography.
“Angelou”http://www.poetryfoundation.org
/archive/poet.html?id=180) Poetry
Foundation. Retrieved 2013-06-23.