Still I Rise Compared to Half Caste Essay

In this essay I am going to compare two poems called Still I Rise by Maya Angelou and Half Caste by John Agard.

Angelou having had an awful, abusive childhood, decided to take a stand about something she felt strongly about; slavery and the oppression of black people. This is when Angelou wrote Still I Rise in the 70s, questioning readers about their stereotypes of black people.

John Agard arriving in England from Guyana in 1977 found England an exciting place with a diverse range of cultures. Being mixed race himself like many people from the Caribbean, his mother being Portuguese and his father being black, but both from Guyana, he grew annoyed at the word used to describe people as half caste. And so Agard wrote his poem, challenging the term and essentially the people who use it.

Both poems express anger in different ways. One of the ways the reader is able to tell the emotion of the poet, is by the tone of the poem. Angelous tones go from one extreme to the complete opposite extreme. For example in the first stanza when Angelou says You may trod me in the very dirt her tone is very strong and the language used I quite aggressive such as trod instead of step for example, and very dirt instead of just dirt trying to show she means the worst of the worst. On the other hand, like in the third stanza she says Just like hopes springing high. Hope is a positive word compared to dirt and springing makes the reader read in an energetic, upbeat tone. A pattern from the third stanza can be seen; the third stanza has an upbeat, positive tone when Angelou says things like Still I rise but then the alternate (fourth) stanza has quite a sad tone; Bowed head and lowered eyes, the fifth stanza is once again upbeat; Cause I laugh like Ive got goldmines because laughter and gold can both give pleasure, but then in stanza six there are three monosyllabic questions as they have the words shoot cut and kill them, they are You may shoot me with your words,/ You may cut me with your eyes,/ You may kill me with your hatefulness, You may kill me with your hatefulness the monosyllabic words give a very harsh tone saying unpleasant things like hate and kill, the seventh stanza is once again quite joyful, saying That I dance like Ive got diamonds because dancing and diamonds can also be pleasurable, it may also be mocking as diamonds have connotations of black people as slaves but she is using them in a contradictive way, but then in the eighth stanza she says Leaving behind nights of terror and fear which shows an unhappy tone describing the emotions she went through, and then in the last stanza which is again upbeat as she repeats I rise many times giving the poem a positive and strong ending.

In Agards poem there is a much calmer tone compared to Angelous poem. Agard uses many examples to get his point across to the reader; whereas Angelous examples have either very positive or negative tones.

At the beginning of the poem Agard says Excuse me, this could be said in an apologetic tone for being half-caste, it could be said in an angry tone as he takes offence to the term half-caste or he could be saying it in a humorous way, ridiculing the term half-caste. The places where Agard may be using a strong tone is after each forward slash when he addresses the reader saying explain yuself/ wha yu mean, this is quite an impolite way to question someone. Each forward slash in Agards poem could be used to represent a different stanza, if this was so then Agard would be addressing the reader with a harsh tone at the beginning of every stanza, this is different to Angelous poem as she uses a harsh or other negative tones in every alternate stanza. The tone in Agards poem is quite humorous as he uses unusual examples to try and make a definition for half-caste such as yu mean when picasso/mix red an green, the humorous tone may have an underlaying tone of anger as he really tells the readers about their ignorance, and it may also be sarcastic as he ridicules the term by trying to use the term in a logical fashion and find a definition. Angelou is different here as she makes her tone quite obvious in each stanza, and it is obvious that she has separate tones and emotions throughout the poem, whereas Agard may be using the same tone throughout the poem and so it is harder to tell the different tones, if in fact there are any at all. I think the humorous tone is quite important as it is more likely to engage the reader, and not make the reader feel as though they are being interrogated or accused, thus making the reader build a wall of defence due to their ego. Angelous poem is more likely to make the reader feel as though they are being attacked, especially with the sixth stanza which has a compilation of questions with a harsh tone beginning with You; the capital letter emphasizes the way she is addressing the reader adding to the angry/harsh tone. Agard does not use a capital e or w as much as Angelou when addressing the reader by saying explain yuself/ wha yu mean, this makes the reader feel less defensive. At the beginning of the poem Agard says Excuse me with a capital e. The capital e could be used to add effect to an angry tone or to grab the readers attention at the start of the poem. Excuse me could be said in a polite way or a sarcastic way as though he is supposed to be apologising for himself. Angelous poem is similar in the way that she starts her poem off with a capital y in You to perhaps also add effect to an angry tone or to grab the readers attention as she does use a capital letter at the beginning of every line.

language

The words used in the poems are also a way of expressing the poets anger.

Angelou starts off her poem with the line You may write me down in history, she may be addressing the readers in general or she may be addressing someone specific from her past. When using the word history Angelou could be talking about the way black people are often associated with slavery, or it could be something personal about how she was made to feel like a victim in her childhood. In the last line of the first stanza she says But still, like dust, Ill rise, dust is considered to be bad, like how some people may be racist or stereotypical in a bad way towards black people, and despite people trying to avoid dust and clean it up, like how black people might be outcaste in society, dust is still all around us and still rises, showing how Angelou wants black people to stand up for themselves and that no one can stop them. This line may not only be about black people but about Angelou herself. In the third stanza she says Just like moons and like suns, here she is using the certainty of nature to show her and black peoples determination and natures gift to us is light so she could be referring to herself as a gift. Angelou uses the word sassiness, she uses the technique of sibilance with the repetition of Ss, this adds effect to the word by making the reader take notice of it and it forces the reader to say the word in a sassy way. In stanza six there are three questions they are You may shoot me with your words,/ You may cut me with your eyes,/ You may kill me with your hatefulness, these could generally be about the way black people are treated in society, as in the nasty way they are spoken to, looked at and disliked, or as she starts each sentence with You it could be a personal link to her past to someone specific. In stanza seven when Angelou says Does my sexiness upset you? by this she could be referring to the times of slavery when black women were raped by their owners and then blamed for it, as apparently they were being too tempting. The lines in the same stanza that says That I dance like Ive got diamonds/ At the meeting of my thighs could be linked with the line Does my sexiness upset you? This is ironic as black people were made to dig for diamonds and women were raped by their owners whilst doing so for apparently being too tempting, but in those lines Angelou is deliberately sounding tempting and showing she has the right to be so without being afraid, here she could also be referring to an incident in her childhood. She is also saying that the meeting of her thighs is very precious because of the diamonds and even though black women were raped in the past it does not mean that they are cheap and so should no longer be associated with that event in the past. In the eighth stanza the line Out of the huts of historys shame is saying that it is shameful that slavery ever existed and by huts she means the way slaves lived and the way black people live in Africa, she then says Up from a past thats rooted in pain by this she could be talking about the injustice all black people had to go through or her personal, painful past, Angelou repeats I rise three times in this stanza and this creates a fast pace as the poem is coming to its ending and she wants to make the strongest impact she can. In the last stanza Angelou talks about the future; Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave,/ I am the dream and the hope of the slave. By this she could mean she is bringing material gifts from her ancestors, or gifts such as knowledge of their past and so learning to appreciate her present and learning to change future memories of black people by showing gifts of laughter to show black people are able to move on from their terrible past as they also have the gifts of power and resilience, by ancestors she could be saying how the black race will continue powerfully for many future generations no matter how much they are tried to get rid of by racism and hatred, by I am the dream of and the hope of the slave Angelou is talking about the future again and may be talking about how she is inspiration for all those who are having a hard life like she had but managed to survive , she is the type of person and dream her ancestors fought for and should be proud of their efforts to survive.

The line Cause I walk like Ive got oil wells/ pumping in my living room this simile could mean a number of things, apart from the obvious that Angelou or black people in general walk as though they are extremely rich, oil is a very precious thing and she could be referring to herself or black people as precious, oil also gives energy so she could be referring to herself or black people as energetic, by saying Pumping in my living room Angelou could be referring to something precious pumping through her body making her energetic, the repetition of p in pumping makes the reader say the word in an energetic way, as pumping is quite an energetic thing so once again representing her body. . In the line Shoulders falling down like teardrops she uses a simile by comparing shoulders to tear drops, people usually shed teardrops when they are sad, so by using this simile she is emphasising the sad emotion she is trying to portray. Angelou says Weakened by my soulful cries, by soulful cries she could be comparing the type of soul music black people created and the way they sing heart wrenching songs, this is again to emphasise the desperate sadness she is trying to depict. Angelou then says Cause I laugh like Ive got goldmines/ Diggin in my own back yard, she could mean she laughs happily as though she is very rich or by my own back yard she could be referring to her own body parts or her soul as in stanza four, and that the laughter is precious and running deep within her like the oil example in stanza two. The lines That I dance like Ive got diamonds/ At the meeting of my thighs? could mean that she dances joyfully as she has something very valuable, as diamonds are a precious and rare commodity, and she is asking those people who associate back people with the diamond digging slavery, if it comes as a surprise that black people should be on the receiving end of valuable good. Another metaphor Angelou uses is Im a black ocean, leaping and wide, by this she could be representing the entire black race as incredibly strong, powerful and active, showing they are not the weak slaves they are associated with, she carries on with the ocean metaphor using imagery of the ocean by saying Welling and swelling I bear in tide, hear she is emphasizing the power of the water by using rhyming words, in turn she is emphasizing the power of black people. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear she could be emphasising the pain the black race is moving on from or her personal childhood which literally consisted of nights of terror and fear, at the end of the stanza she creates imagery with the line Into a daybreak thats wondrously clear, the word daybreak means a new day showing a new, hopeful future for black people. The imagery Agard uses is a lot more light-hearted compared to Angelous, in the way that his examples are almost ridiculous. Agards first example of imagery is in the first stanza (indicated by the forward slash) you mean when Picasso mix red an green; Picasso is a well known and respected artist and so is his art, so by using such a significant personality, Agard has shown the colours Picasso uses to represent the mix of colours he is himself, to show that he too should be respected but also how the term half-caste is a very general and inaccurate term to describe people of multi-heritage, but most obviously the imagery is quite ridiculous as it is comparing a human to the mixing of paint; there is hardly any relation between the two but if thought of in simple terms then it shows essentially what the term half-caste implies, and humans are a lot more complicated than a painting, they are not just a simple mix of colours, Agard shows the seriousness of the offensiveness of calling someone half-caste in a humorous way whereas Angelou is very obvious in her aggressive tone in the first stanza. Agards second example of imagery is when he says yu mean when light an shadow/ mix in de sky/ is a half caste-weather; here he is using English weather which is often the butt of many jokes to lighten the mood, and once again he is showing that the weather is not thought of in a disrespectful way and so people should be worth even more respect. Agard then says yu mean Tchaikovsky/ sit down at dah piano/ an mix a black key/ wid a white key/ is a half-caste symphony; by this Agard is once again using a respected person in history to show the basic meaning of half-caste and how no-one would even think of the music composed by him in a disrespectful way, by saying black key and white key Agard is specifically referring to skin colour. In the last stanza Agard says Ah listenin to yu wid de keen/ half of mih ear/ Ah lookin at yu wid de keen/ half of mih eye and why I offer yu half a hand/I close half a eye and I dream half a dream and caste half a shadow; clearly, to have half an eye, ear, hand, dream or shadow is impossible and so by saying this Agard is being humorous but showing what people actually mean when calling him half-caste and he feels he is physically divided as well as mentally (when referring to dreams). During the nd of the poem Agard asks the reader to think in a more open-minded way and discuss the issue by saying an I will tell yu/ de other half/ of my story; here Agard is giving the reader the chance to meet him half-way and not feel under attack without being able to voice his/her opinion, this too adds to the lightness of the poem. The ending of Angelous poem isnt quite the same as she says that she will overcome her obstacles by herself I rise/ I rise/ I rise, and so her poem is more serious in the way that it makes us feel as though Angelou is going through this ordeal by herself and so makes us feel sorry for her. Angelou is also very proud of her race and heritage and wants it to be noticed for good things, whereas Agard tries very hard to show that he wants to be accepted in society with no inferiority despite his heritage. Agards says ah rass which is a term of disgust in creole, in this way Agard insults himself in perhaps a sarcastic way in the same way Angelou uses irony.

The structure of the poems is key in identifying how the poets decided to use the sense of sound to make their expression of anger more legible.

In Angelous poem the first seven stanzas all have four lines. The entire poem has a consistent rhyme scheme which is ABCB, like a song to make it more memorable. The last stanza is very strong in particular, reflecting the positive tone. The poem also has a strong rhythm, making it easier to remember. Agard does not have a strict rhyme scheme, this reflects his voice which does not apply the rules of the English language, but the repetition of the letters a and s gives the poem rhythm and rhyme. Angelou has a capital letter at the beginning of each line, perhaps this is to emphasise the strong powerful emotions she is portraying throughout the poem by making it bold with capital letters, Agard does not use capital letters at the beginning of each new line, and perhaps this is to keep his humorous tone and not make the poem seem too serious and bold, but he does when referring to himself. Agard also writes proper names such as picasso and tchaikovsky without a capital letter, I think he does this to show that even though they are recognized figures for their great work, everyone is still equal to them and should be treated with the same respect, and by not using capital letters at the start of each name he is breaking the rules of the English language (as though he, himself has broken rules by being half-caste) and showing things from a different perspective-the way he wants himself to be seen. Agard also uses phonetic speech. By doing this he spells words in a different way so they are pronounced in a different way; again breaking the rules of the English language. The phonetic speech is very important in the poem as it shows Agard is proud of his origins and will not try and fit into societies beliefs of the term half-caste.

I think both poems are effective in their own way, but Angelous poem stands out to me more. I think this is because her poem looks bolder in the way its written, has more of a rhyme scheme so is more memorable and does not use humour in the way Agard does. This makes the poem stand out to me more, whereas I think although Agard has used humour, this makes his poem easier to disregard as a joke. Angelou has not only spoken about her culture but she has also spoken about how women have been and are abused. This point is quite effective to me personally. I think both these poets have decided to talk about their culture and identity as they feel these things were obstacles to them in the past, and felt the need to overcome them. So they expressed their anger, and in turn inspired people in the same circumstances. The issue of racism is discussed a lot more today and people from ethnic minorities and females have more say then they did in the past, so I think these poems were written because the poets wanted to show they were not shy about the subjects and wanted change in society.