"Still I Rise"

Maya Angelou


You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I`ll rise.



Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

`Cause I walk like I`ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.



Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I`ll rise.



Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?



Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don`t you take it awful hard

`Cause I laugh like I`ve got gold mines

Diggin` in my own backyard.



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.


Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I`ve got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

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`s 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.