y in 1977, for which she received a Tony award.Her writing is deeply personal, with short lines and a heavy dependence on rhythym and rhyme. Many critics regard it as overly simplistic and childish. " at times her addiction to rhyme betrays her to banality." (CLC 35, 29) She seems most sure of herself when writing about her culture and heritage. "One soon discovers that she is on her surest ground when she borrows various folk idioms and forms and thereby buttresses her poems by evoking aspects of a cultures written and unwritten heritage." (CLC 35, 30) She often uses symbols that can also be found in the lyrics to songs that slaves sang in the fields while they worked. In Still I Rise, the theme of rising and flying to freedom flows throughout. This is based on old African folklore of an old medicine man, the only one left in his tribe not taken by the slave ships from native Africa. Now these are no ordinary people, because they have wings. It is also a highly spiritual tribe, and each person in the tribe has a flower planted in a garden and tended by the medicine man. These flowers are supposed to represent hope, and when the tribe becomes slaves, the flowers begin to die and the people lose their wings. The medicine man takes the flowers and replants them in the new world, tending them and making them grow again. With the help of his assistant, he reassures his tribe via secret visits that they will soon be free, but they must retain their hope. When the flowers have grown again and he has enough petals, he makes a special drink and feeds to all the members of his tribe. They grow their wings and fly away, out of the reach of the slave owners. (Abrahams, 245) Angelou reiterates this dream of flying: "Into a daybreak thats wondrously clear/I rise/ Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,/I am the dream and the hope of the slave./I rise/I rise/I rise." (Angelou, 164) Also, "Tired now of pedestal existence/For fear of flying/And vert...
