Still I Rise
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.
What I Feel:
Maya Angalou is a Afro-American contemporary poet. She faithfully presents the world of the Negroes, especially women, in her poems and novels. The Black people of America bear the scar of slavery, oppression and exploitation by the White people until a few decades which Maya refers to as "past that's rooted in pain". In this well-known of poem, written during the first period of her carreer as a writer, Maya says of the White men's contempt for the Black. In spite of the White men's attempt to keep the Black people subdued, the latter have claimed his human rights and even have made place in history. In this poem Maya says in the typical voice of a Black person that he/she will "rise" in spite of the White men's oppression, scoff and conspiracy against him/her. The structure of the poem is irregular but that imparts musical quality to it; its deep emotional tone is worth noting.
