Speaker

The speaker of the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou can be understood to be a persona of the poet. 

Firstly, the seventh stanza references the speaker’s sensuality and femininity: “I dance like I’ve got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?” (ll. 27-28). This suggests that the speaker is a woman. 

Then, throughout the poem, the speaker also mentions the oppression and discrimination she is facing, which suggests that she could be part of a minority: “You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies,” (ll. 1-2). However, the end of the poem makes a more specific reference: 

Out of the huts of history’s shame
 I rise
Up from a past that’...