Maya Angelou's use of imagery in Still I Rise.

In "Still I Rise," Angelou uses the imagery of dust to symbolize the nature of her resistant spirit. When dust is pounded or struck with any force, instead of falling downward, it flies up again (due to the displacement of air caused by the wake of the quickly moving hand in combination with the dust's minuscule mass - but the physics isn't the issue here). The harder you swing at dust, the faster it rises back up. This image is a picture of Angelou's spirit - there's no keeping her down.

Another image from "Still I Rise," Angelou says that she walks "like I've got oil wells / Pumping in my living room." Even though she's suffering oppression, she keeps an indelibly optimistic fighting spirit - change is inevitable, and she knows that even this oppression will pass, opening the canopy of the clouds to reveal the brightness of the dawn.