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.
From And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou.
Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.