What type of poem is “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou?
I love this poem. This and “Phenomenal Woman” are two of my favorites from Angelou. Angelou is an awesome person. This is, overall, a lyric poem. Lyric poems basically express emotion, contrasted with narrative poems, which tell stories. Words in a narrative can be lyrical (touch on emotion) but if there is a story (plot), the poem is called a narrative poem. There is no story here. She’s celebrating how she rises above all the shots people take at her. She’s cool with herself and doesn’t really care how others perceive her. She rises above all criticism. This can’t be free verse because it has consistent rhyme. Free verse is unconfined by rhyme.
