Maya Angelou's "Notwithstanding I Ascension" is a powerful poem that draws on a range of influences, including her personal background and the African American feel in the United States. Its message of liberation and survival was a consistent theme in Angelou'southward work. Years after it was published in 1978, the poem continues to reach readers and audiences, cutting across racial lines and national boundaries. Angelou herself commented on its appeal in a 2008 interview: "You know, if y'all're lone you feel you've been done down, it'due south nice to have 'And Yet I Ascent.'"
Poesy helped Angelou with her mutism as a child
Angelou grew up amid the degradations of the Jim Crow South. At the age of vii, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was killed (presumably past family members seeking retribution) after she reported the criminal offense. Following this trauma, Angelou sought refuge in mutism. But fifty-fifty when she wouldn't speak, Angelou studied and memorized poems, which gave her a unique understanding of language.
A want to limited her love for poetry by speaking it aloud helped draw Angelou out of her mutism. Yet she didn't forget the broad breadth of literature she'd taken in, which included works by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare.
She penned her first verses when she was still in schoolhouse, and in the late 1950s, Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she interacted with James Baldwin and other writers. She authored plays, including 1 that was produced off-Broadway in 1960. While living in Egypt in the early 1960s, she edited an English-language newspaper and also spent time as a singer, dancer and actress.
However, Angelou admitted that writing verse was e'er a claiming for her: "When I come close to maxim what I want to, I'grand over the moon. Fifty-fifty if information technology'due south merely six lines, I pull out the champagne. Just until then, my goodness, those lines worry me like a mosquito in the ear."
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19 Inspirational Maya Angelou Quotes
The death of Martin Luther Male monarch Jr. propelled Angelou to throw herself into her writing
In 1968, things changed for the author — she was preparing to join forces with Martin Luther Male monarch Jr. to bring attention to his Poor People's Campaign and decided to take some time to celebrate her 40th birthday before accompanying King. As Angelou was getting ready for a party on her birthday, April four, she learned King had been assassinated. Years passed before she commemorated her birthday again.
One manner Angelou coped following King's death was to write. Her quantum memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was published in 1969. This was followed by additional memoirs, books of verse and plays, including a dramatic musical production called And Nonetheless I Rise that was produced in Oakland, California, in 1976. In 1978, her poetry collection And Still I Rise was published. "Still I Ascent" was included in this book
READ MORE: The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Angelou wanted to write a poem about 'defeat' and 'survival'
"Still I Rising" begins with, "You may write me down in history / With your biting, twisted lies, / You lot may trod me in the very dirt / Merely even so, like grit, I'll rise." Throughout the verse form, the types of harrowing and unjust treatment that Black people in America are addressed alongside declarations of "I rise."
Angelou drew upon blues, gospel and spiritual songs as inspiration for the balladic patterns of the poem. She uses a "call and response" technique, references her sexuality and perhaps because she appreciated African American oral traditions, the power of the poem becomes even more than axiomatic when recited.
The ability to cope with adversity is a stiff theme throughout "Still I Rise." "All my work, my life, everything is almost survival," she once stated. "All my work is meant to say, 'You may encounter many defeats, merely you must not be defeated.' In fact, the encountering may be the very experience which creates the vitality and the power to endure."
For Angelou, Black people in America had remained "intact plenty to survive, and to do better than that — to thrive. And to do better than that — to thrive with some passion, some pity, some humour and some mode." In a 2009 interview, Angelou, whose great-grandmother was built-in into slavery, expressed her feeling that enslaved African Americans "couldn't take survived slavery without having hope that it would go better." This sentiment can exist seen in the final lines of "Still I Rise": "I am the dream and the hope of the slave. / I rise / I rise / I rise."
READ MORE: Maya Angelou and 9 Other All-time-Selling Blackness Authors
"Even so I Rising" continues to resonate with new generations
Once, when asked what piece of work could offer succor in difficult times, Angelou referred to "Still I Rising." She noted it was "a poem of mine that is very popular in the country. And a number of people utilize it. A lot of Blackness of people and a lot of white people utilize it."
Decades after it was published, people continue to reference "Yet I Rise." In 1994, the United Negro College Fund, aiming for a more hopeful tone in its appeals, created a spot that featured Angelou reading part of "Still I Rise." Also that year, Nelson Mandela, having read Angelou's piece of work while in prison during apartheid, recited "Still I Rise" when he was inaugurated as S Africa'south president. A posthumous 1999 release from Tupac Shakur — who had cried in Angelou'due south artillery when they were filming Poetic Justice together — was called All the same I Ascension, and amongst the tracks was a vocal with the aforementioned title. In 2017, Serena Williams issued a response that quoted some of Angelou's verses after a beau tennis player made racist remarks well-nigh the kid Williams was then expecting. That same year, a documentary about Angelou was called And Even so I Rise. The moving picture ends with Angelou'south phonation reciting the powerful poem — forever cementing its legacy.
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