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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. Which is the first stanza of the poem that is longer than four lines?

2. What technique is used in line 29, "Out of the huts of history’s shame"?

3. What precious stones does the speaker use to evoke beauty and value in the simile in line 27?

4. What techniques are used in line 19, "’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines"?

5. Which two things does the final stanza use to represent the past and present?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

4. Why is the poem titled "Still I Rise" and not just "I Rise"--what additional idea does the word "Still" convey?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read Lucille Clifton's poem "won't you celebrate with me" (available online). What does Clifton mean by "babylon," in line 4? What claim is she making about oppression and triumph? How does she also use natural resources in her poem? Is her speaker's voice similar to or different from the speaker in "Still I Rise"? Why? Write an essay in which you discuss similarities and differences in the way Clifton and Angelou approach the theme of survival against oppression. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout both poems, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Diamonds, oil, and gold are all valuable resources that originally come from deep inside the earth. What does this suggest about the confidence and pride that the speaker feels? What might the earth represent in these similes? Someone has to extract these resources in order for humans to use them, but not all people have access to or benefit equally from things like diamond mines, oil wells, and gold mines. What might the mines and wells represent in these similes? Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about what the speaker is using these similes to illustrate about power, resources, confidence, and race. 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

Is it possible to make an argument that even though the final two stanzas seem more focused on the speaker, they are also paradoxically less focused on the speaker? In what way do the first seven stanzas focus on individual characteristics of the speaker, and how do the final two stanzas shift this focus to the speaker as a representative of something larger than any one individual? Write an essay that makes an argument about how shifts in technical and content choices in the final two stanzas work together to alter the poem's focus from a personal disagreement to a historical one. Support your 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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