Still+I+Rise

=By Mya 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. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Weakened by my soulful cries.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Does my haughtiness offend you? <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Don't you take it awful hard <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Diggin' in my own back yard.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">You may shoot me with your words, <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">You may cut me with your eyes, <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">You may kill me with your hatefulness, <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">But still, like air, I'll rise.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Does my sexiness upset you? <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Does it come as a surprise <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">That I dance like I've got diamonds <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">At the meeting of my thighs?

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Out of the huts of history's shame <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I rise <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Up from a past that's rooted in pain <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I rise <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Leaving behind nights of terror and fear <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I rise <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I rise <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I am the dream and the hope of the slave. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I rise <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I rise <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I rise.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Published 1978