It's that time of the term that we have E-Learning again! So basically for Language Arts we had two lessons. For the first we had to watch a video on figurative language and then go to this website with tons and tons of famous poems and select the poem we like best. After doing all that, here is the poem I selected:
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
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.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
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.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
All Similes are coloured in RED.
All Metaphors are coloured in YELLOW.
All Hyperboles are coloured in PURPLE.
I am most likely wrong, but I do not think I found any Symbolism or Personification. I do actually see a pattern, that at the starting of the poem, there are a lot of similes and some hyperboles but then it gradually became more of metaphors. Well I think at the starting, so many similes are used to show the different extents of the authors emotions. Things like, "like dust", "like moons and like suns" and "like teardrops", are actually exaggerations, but allow the reader to connect with the author about how deep or serious is an emotion. Similes are much like Hyperboles, except that similes are more often used with words like "as" or "like" etc.
Apart from the similes and hyperboles, there are also a lot of metaphors. I think the reason Maya Angelou did this was because she wanted to show how much an extent something is to another thing. Just like "You may shoot me with your words","You may cut me with your eyes" and "You may kill me with your hatefulness" . In actual fact words cannot shoot, eyes cannot cut and hatefulness does not kill. But when someone insults you and hurts your feelings, in a way you are being shot by his words.
Now there are many reasons why I chose this problem. Firstly, I like the fact that there are a lot of similes and metaphors used. These are actually two of the examples of figurative language that I use most often when I write my scripts or compositions. My favourite part is really the part about shooting with words. I think that would have much impact on many readers, as we all have experienced it. I also like the flow of the poem. It seems as though one paragraph, there is an ending on her title, Still I Rise. Then she moves on to describe her emotions. After which she will always link back to her title. This allows the author to be constantly reminded about what emotions she is trying to relate to the readers. Lastly, at the end of the poem, she repeated the phrase "I rise" thrice. This is actually a very good way to sumarise your entire poem and also increase the impact of the entire poem. If I were to read this poem out loud, I would read the part on "I rise" three times, becoming softer each time. So it goes like I rise, I rise, I rise. This is the end of lesson 1 then and I shall be proceeding to lesson 2 now!
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