Still I Rise Poem – Full Text Of The Poem By Maya Angelou
STILL I RISE POEM – In this topic, we are going to read the full text of the poem Still I Rise written by Maya Angelou.
As mentioned above, it is written by American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist Marguerite Annie Johnson, also known as Maya Angelou.
The poem is among Angelou’s third volume of poetry of nearly the same name.
The volume was published by Rando house in 1978, during the most productive time of Angelou’s career.
The poet was well known for her seven autobiographies, with her most popular first being I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
Full Text
Here is the full text of the poem uplifted from Poetry Foundation:
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.
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