Semangat Kegigihan Sebagaimana Tergambarkan Dalam Puisi Berjudul Still I Rise Karya Maya Angelou dan The Negro Mother Karya Langston Hughes

The objectives of this study are to reveal the spirit of persistence portrayed in two poems, Still I Rise by Maya Angelou and The Negro Mother by Langston Hughes, and to see the relation between the poet�s lifetime experience and their works. This paper uses expressive theory by M. H. Abrams which appreciates literary works from the author�s point of view and the society at that time. There are two types of data which are used in this paper. The primary data are two poems entitled Still I Rise by Maya Angelou and The Negro Mother by Langston Hughes. The secondary data are references from the reliable internet resource to support the analysis. The result of the study shows that the lifetime experience of two poets, Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes as African Americans who experienced so many conflicts, made them stronger and having highly spirit of persistence especially to defend their race from whites� suppression. The optimism portrayed in their poems are motivating not only for their race and their people but also all the readers