Maya Angelou's most i mportant book was “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” in 1969 — a lyrical, unsparing account of her childhood in the Jim Crow South — it was among the first autobiographies by a 20th-century black woman to reach a wide general readership. Let's listen to her "Still I rise" poem.
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 as if I have wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like suns and like moons,
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 so hard
'Cause I laugh as if I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You can shoot me with your words,
You can cut me with your lies,
You can kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like life, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance as if 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 miraculously 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.
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 as if I have wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like suns and like moons,
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 so hard
'Cause I laugh as if I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You can shoot me with your words,
You can cut me with your lies,
You can kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like life, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance as if 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 miraculously 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.
© . All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment