View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 7 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What technique is used in lines 7 and 8, "’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/ Pumping in my living room"?
(a) Simile.
(b) Juxtaposition.
(c) Personification.
(d) Metaphor.

2. Which is the first stanza of the poem that is longer than four lines?
(a) 7.
(b) 6.
(c) 8.
(d) 9.

3. What technique is used in line 29, "Out of the huts of history’s shame"?
(a) Juxtaposition.
(b) Allegory.
(c) Oxymoron.
(d) Allusion.

4. What technique does the first line of the poem, "You may write me down in history," introduce?
(a) Allegory.
(b) Catalog.
(c) Verbal irony.
(d) Apostrophe.

5. Which technique is used in line 9, "Just like moons and like suns"?
(a) Parallelism.
(b) Allusion.
(c) Euphemism.
(d) Dialect.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Which is the best definition for "trod" in the context of line 3?

3. In line 17, what kind of a person is described by the word "haughtiness"?

4. Which is the best definition of "beset" in line 6?

5. Who is the author of "Still I Rise"?

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. 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?

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

4. Describe how the final two stanzas of the poem differ from the first seven stazas.

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 625 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample