Scribd
Upload
145 views2 pages

Direct Address in Angelou's Poetry

The document discusses Maya Angelou's use of rhetorical questions and direct address in her poem "Still I Rise". It notes that the rhetorical questions are assertive and confrontational, forcing the reader to engage. They take the form of "Does my..." and create feelings of guilt in white audiences. The direct address gives the poem an emotive, confrontational tone that challenges ideas. The rhetorical questions also help establish who the speaker is addressing. By not giving space for the questions to be answered, Angelou asserts she is not concerned with white opinions, aiming instead to empower other African Americans. The questions show Angelou regaining confidence and reclaiming her voice over the course of the poem.

Uploaded by

Stuart Henderson
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
145 views2 pages

Direct Address in Angelou's Poetry

The document discusses Maya Angelou's use of rhetorical questions and direct address in her poem "Still I Rise". It notes that the rhetorical questions are assertive and confrontational, forcing the reader to engage. They take the form of "Does my..." and create feelings of guilt in white audiences. The direct address gives the poem an emotive, confrontational tone that challenges ideas. The rhetorical questions also help establish who the speaker is addressing. By not giving space for the questions to be answered, Angelou asserts she is not concerned with white opinions, aiming instead to empower other African Americans. The questions show Angelou regaining confidence and reclaiming her voice over the course of the poem.

Uploaded by

Stuart Henderson
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Direct address through personal pronoun and rhetorical question

Similarities between the rhetorical questions in the poem

All the rhetorical questions used in ‘Still I Rise’ were of an assertive and confronting
nature, forcing the reader to question themselves and engage with the literature.
They were also all in the same form, ie “Does my . . .”. The direct address in it made
the poem quite emotive and life-like. It created feelings of guilt within the white
audience. An example of this is in the first line of the second stanza: “Does my
sassiness upset you?” – It shows the reader that she is not scared of being
confrontational or being abrupt with the reader.

Tone used in direct address

The direct address determines the tone of the poem quite significantly because of
the emotions it brings to the surface. It also makes it more confrontational which
makes you feel like you have a place in the poem therefore makes the poem feel
more alive because as a reader we are being forced to challenge our preconceived
ideas. The use of rhetorical questions helps to determine who the speaker is, and
who she is addressing.

Angelou’s voice reclamation

Angelou’s use of rhetorical questions do link to creating her voice within the poem
and can also link to her purpose of empowering her fellow African Americans with
racial pride, self identity etc .By putting the rhetorical questions around the beginning
of each stanza, we are shown that Angelou doesn’t think the opinions of the white
community are significant because there is no line break or space for the questions
to be answered. Angelou isn’t considering the absurd situation where someone
would even answer the question. She does this because she wants to broadcast this
message of empowerment to other African Americans and she wants to encourage
them to not back down to white oppression.

Because of the rhetorical questions at the beginning of stanzas we can see that is
she regaining her voice and gaining confidence within it. An example of this is stanza
7, where after asking “Does my sexiness upset you?” Angelou then writes “Does it
come as a surprise, That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my
thighs?” – This proves to the readers that Angelou’s voice is reclaimed after the
question because the following statement is very confident and unselfconscious and
we can tell that she is no longer worried about her voice being dangerous but
empowering to herself and others.

Quiz questions
1) What was Angelou’s purpose in using rhetorical questions within her direct address?

2) How do the rhetorical questions in the poem link to Angelou creating her personal voice?

You might also like