Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
“I walk like I’ve got oil wells pumping in my living room.” – Oil wells give people wealth, confidence and pride. This simile is showing that she is walking with wealth, confidence and pride. It says that it is in her living room because nobody has oil wells in their living room and it’s her saying that it’s in her house meaning that it is in a spot that she is in every day and would spend a lot of time in. She is showing to that audience that if you believe in yourself you can have great commercial success in life.
“I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.” – This metaphor is Maya Angelou saying that you can move lake and rivers but you can’t move oceans. She is referring to herself as an ocean and saying that it can’t push her and knock her down and that she is powerful enough to stand against it and move away from it. The rhyme throughout the paragraph is proving to the audience and readers even more how unstoppable she is.
“Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops.” – This simile is comparing lowered shoulders to teardrops. When someone is sad they cry (teardrops) as they get sadder the faster the teardrops will fall. She is saying that the more racist comments made peoples shoulders will fall faster and faster. This is the saddest stanza in the poem, she is emphasizing to her audience and readers that no matter how low you go and if you’ve hit rock bottom you will come back from it and you can become stronger than before.