Lyric poetry typically employs a first person narrator who expresses personal emotions. Angelou uses the lyric form to express her feelings about racism and self-worth. This lyric poem has nine stanzas of varying lengths. The first seven stanzas are four lines long, and the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme. The eighth stanza has six lines and ends with a rhyming couplet, or, a pair of lines. The last stanza has nine lines with the first and third lines rhyming and the fifth and sixth lines rhyming. This structure works with the lyrical form and meter to suggest the rhythm and musicality of a live performance. The more staccato rhythm created by short stanzas morphs into a smoother rhythm that builds to a crescendo, as if the listener is rising with the speaker.

The poem does not have a clear and consistent meter, or, a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. The earlier stanzas do favor a falling meter with trochees, which is one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. This meter supports the poem's discussion of oppression early in the poem.