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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 7 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of "certainty" does the speaker claim to have in line 10?

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

3. In the fourth stanza, what kind of person does the speaker ask if "you" want her to be?

4. Which technique is frequently used at the beginnings of stanzas?

5. What body of water does the speaker claim to be in the eighth stanza?

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 do all of the questions the speaker asks have in common?

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

4. 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?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In "Still I Rise," how does the speaker's voice impact the reader? How does Angelou manage to create a friendly, humorous tone for her speaker despite the serious and challenging message the speaker is issuing? How is the speaker's voice confident and authoritative without becoming condescending or elitist? How do the poem's diction, details, figurative language, musical devices, and rhythm work together to create this engaging voice? Write an essay in which you analyze the speaker's voice and its impact on the reader, commenting on Angelou's likely purpose in creating such an engaging voice. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the poem, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

How does Angelou's use of rhyme in "Still I Rise" relate to the broader question of how she employs musical devices in this poem? What are the purposes of the rhyme scheme? How does it group and emphasize ideas, create pace and flow, and contribute to tone? How does Angelou use other musical devices, such as rhythm and repetition, (of sounds, words and phrases, grammatical patterns, and so on), to accomplish these same objectives? Write an essay in which you demonstrate how the poem's rhyme scheme and its other musical devices work together to accomplish similar objectives. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the poem, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

How does Angelou use the rhythm of her poem to create tone and shifts in tone? How does she use meter to emphasize ideas and support the poem's overall meaning? Write an essay in which you explicate and analyze the poem's rhythm. Describe how the initial meter is established and then note where this dominant meter changes. Comment on the possible purposes of both the poem's dominant meter and any changes to new metrical patterns. Support your explication and analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the poem, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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