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Repetition

Repetition plays an important role in “Still I Rise.” The speaker repeats the phrase “I rise” many times throughout the poem, establishing a defiant refrain that underscores her strength and resilience. This refrain initially appears at the end of the first stanza, when the speaker announces: “But still, like dust, I’ll rise” (line 4). The phrase appears again at the end of the third and sixth stanzas. Then, in the eighth stanza, a simplified version of the phrase begins to interrupt the quatrain form (lines 29–34):

     Out of the huts of history’s shame
     I rise
     Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
     I rise
     I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
     Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

The refrain of “I rise” becomes even more prominent in the poem’s final stanza, which concludes with three iterations of the same phrase: “I rise / I rise / I rise” (lines 41–43). The repetition of this phrase doesn’t simply emphasize the speaker’s message about resilience. It also sets the overall tone of defiance in the face of an oppressive society.

Parallelism

Closely related to the speaker’s use of repetition is her use of parallelism. Parallelism is a rhetorical technique that coordinates separate ideas through the repetition of similar wording or phrasing. The mere repetition of words and phrases can produce any number of effects. By contrast, parallelism specifically helps to bring a sense of order and balance to the arrangement of ideas. Such a sense of order and balance helps demonstrate the relations between ideas, which in turn can have a persuasive effect. For one example, consider the poem’s third stanza (lines 9–12):

     Just like moon and like suns,
     With the certainty of tides,
     Just like hopes springing high,
     Still I’ll rise.

This passage creates a parallel structure through the repetition of the phrase “Just like.” This phrase opens two sequential dependent clauses, establishing a two-part simile that the speaker resolves with the independent clause in the final line: “Still I rise.” The use of parallel structure in this stanza sets up a pleasing effect of tension and resolution that helps persuade the reader of the confidence the speaker has in her own resilience. 

Simile and Metaphor

Throughout the poem, the speaker employs simile and metaphor to describe the various ways in which she will rise above oppression. Recall that a simile (SIH-muh-lee) is a figure of speech that explicitly compares two unlike things to each other. A metaphor (MEH-tuh-for), by contrast, makes a more implicit comparison between two unlike things. The opening stanza offers a useful example of how the speaker makes use of both figures of speech to similar effect (lines 1–4):

     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.

In these lines, the speaker addresses the tendency of her oppressive society to misrepresent the history of her people. At first, she develops a metaphor that implicitly likens the experience of misrepresentation to being “trod . . . in the very dirt.” However, just as dust floats into the air when you try to stomp it down, the speaker will rise above the attempt to suppress her or the history of her people. The speaker makes this point through the more explicit simile that appears in the final line of the quoted passage: “But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” Comparable metaphors and similes appear throughout the poem.

Rhetorical Questions

Of all the poetic devices used in the poem, perhaps the most prominent is the rhetorical question. The speaker asks no fewer than eight rhetorical questions, each of which she addresses to an unspecified “you.” Generally speaking, rhetorical questions aren’t meant to be answered. Rather, writers use them to make a point or to create a dramatic effect. In the case of “Still I Rise,” the speaker uses rhetorical questions to establish her attitude of defiance. She directs her questions toward an oppressive society that expects Black women to be quiet and submissive. In response to these expectations, she exudes a defiant sense of irony. Consider these lines (lines 3–16) from the fourth stanza:

     Did you want to see me broken?
     Bowed head and lowered eyes?
     Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
     Weakened by my soulful cries?

In these and other lines throughout the poem, the speaker uses rhetorical questions in a twofold way. On the one hand, she acknowledges the oppressive expectations her society has of her. On the other hand, by framing these expectations as rhetorical questions, she implicitly rejects them. What she’s really saying in these lines is that she isn’t broken, burdened by shame, or overcome by sadness. On the contrary, she’s whole, confident, and strong.

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