The work of Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise” is in piercing contrast to the poem of Lisa Suhair Majaj, “Guidelines”; however, they are similar in various facets. Minorities often struggle in America to achieve the same privileges and benefits of the dominate people in the country. Both poems have attributes that display courage to stand against those in power to maintain their dignity yet the authors utilize tones, denotation, imagery and use language distinctively. The phase, “If they ask you where you are from, say Toledo…..Topeka (Majaj, 2009) is opposite than this technique, “Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells pumping in my living room” (Angelou, 1978). Each equally uses alliteration, understatement and uses tone in comparable techniques
