Still I Rise by 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 back yard.

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.