Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise," portrays a strong theme of never letting anyone or anything in life bring us down. Angelou uses several devices throughout her poem to help get her point across thoroughly. The strongest device used in her poem is her forceful tone of determination that implies; we should never allow people to get to us just because of their negative feelings towards us. The tone is kept so strongly throughout the poem with the help of the rhyme scheme, her use of similes to compare, and the theme that is constantly being repeated. "Still I Rise", is an inspirational poem with an end rhyme scheme, where words in every other line tend to rhyme. The pattern of the rhyme scheme allows the words of the poem to flow fluently and gives Angelou the opportunity to keep her tone of determination set. .
"You may write me down in history.
With your bitter, twisted lies,.
You may tread me in the very dirt.
But still, like dust, I'll rise".
In the stanza above Maya Angelou rhymes the words "lies" and "rise" . By rhyming the two she is emphasizing that although people may lie or say harmful things with the intentions of bringing us down our goal needs to be to not let those words get to us and we need to do whatever it takes to continue to rise. The rhyming also allows readers to understand and presume the strong sense of determination being inferred. Maya Angelou does an exceptional job of using similes in her poem to make comparisons. The comparisons she is making endows readers to imagine how she is feeling and also feel the determination she has to keep on rising. .
"Just like moons and like suns,.
With the certainty of tides,.
Just like hopes springing high,.
Still I'll rise".
Angelou is constantly comparing herself to inanimate objects that rise, just as she does in the lines above. She describes, just like the sun and the moon she is going to continue to rise.