Quote by Maya Angelou: “Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I'll rise.”

The speaker aligns herself with natural forces — the moon, the sun, the tides — that no human cruelty can stop. This is a declaration that survival and dignity are as inevitable and elemental as nature itself. No matter what has been done to suppress her, rising is what she does, because it is what she is.

Angelou published 'Still I Rise' in her 1978 collection And Still I Rise, a period when Black women's literary voices were gaining visibility and power in the United States. The poem is addressed to those who have tried to crush its speaker through history, violence, and contempt.

American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist whose 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings brought her international recognition. She delivered her poem 'On the Pulse of Morning' at President Clinton's 1993 inauguration, becoming one of the most celebrated American writers of the twentieth century.