Still I Rise

Maya Angelou, in both life and death, has acquired an unparalleled abundance of recognition. From “honorary degrees” and awards, to sheer compliments, Angelou has deserved every bit of the copious amount of success she achieved. Among these compliments, Angelou has been praised as a particularly “prolific poet, whose lyrics draw on African American oral traditions” (Gates and Smith 946). These language traditions, or vernacular, greatly characterize the sentiment of Angelou’s works. In particular, her piece “Still I Rise” is especially influenced by the African American vernacular. This premise can be corroborated through comparing “Still I Rise” to works from other works from specific vernaculars.

For starters, “Still I Rise” embodies characteristics
Specifically, “Still I Rise” exhibits some qualities that could draw parallels between it and the ‘Songs of Social Change’ vernacular . In particular, the social change tradition, has evidenced themes of “black anger and of the black woman’s specific quest of wholeness, freedom, and agency (Gates and Smith 17). This feminine aspect is perceptible in “Still I Rise”, as evidenced by the confident, and overtly sexual, female images painted by Angelou. For example, she pens “I dance like I’ve got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs” (Angelou 947). In regards to the aforementioned anger, Angelou turns confrontational when she asks the audience “Does my sexiness upset you” (946). As for a comparative piece, “Four Women” by Nina Simone exhibits these qualities and when put alongside “Still I Rise”, shows the two pieces to be very similar. In “Four Women”, Simone, like Angelou, pens womanly and sensual images such as, “My hips invite you / My mouth tastes like wine”. Finally, she employs the same questioning tactic as Angelou when she begs the question “Whose little girl am I” (Gates and Smith 21). This parallelism demonstrates how it is possible to link “Still I Rise” to the social change