Q101
Which of the following describes the theme of the poem correctly?
- (1) Feminism
- (2) Relationship
- (3) Oppression
- (4) Environment
CTET 7 Feb 2026 Paper 1 English, Question 101
Read the extract given below and answer the questions (Q. Nos. 100–105) that follow :
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that is 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.
Solution.
CBSE answer: (3)
Answer: (3) Oppression
- The speaker is shot with words, cut with eyes and met with hatefulness.
- She rises from "history's shame", "pain" and "nights of terror and fear", and speaks for "the slave".
- The poem is about rising above long oppression.
Trap: (1) The voice may be a woman's, but nothing in the extract is about women's rights; it is about a people who were enslaved.