Cited: Angelou, Maya. Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now. Random House 1993 Rampersad, Arnold and Hilary Herbold, eds. The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. Oxford University Press 2006 “Still I Rise Analysis Maya Angelou” elite skills.com. 2009. 10 February 2011. http://www.eliteskills.com/analysis_poetry/Still_I_Rise_by_Maya_Angelou_analysis.php “Still I Rise” You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut 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 wellsPumping 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 minesDiggin ' 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 surpriseThat I dance like I 've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs?Out of the huts of history 's shameI riseUp from a past that 's rooted in painI riseI 'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that 's wondrously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.I riseI riseI rise. Maya Angelou
Cited: Angelou, Maya. Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now. Random House 1993 Rampersad, Arnold and Hilary Herbold, eds. The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. Oxford University Press 2006 “Still I Rise Analysis Maya Angelou” elite skills.com. 2009. 10 February 2011. http://www.eliteskills.com/analysis_poetry/Still_I_Rise_by_Maya_Angelou_analysis.php “Still I Rise” You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut 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 wellsPumping 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 minesDiggin ' 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 surpriseThat I dance like I 've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs?Out of the huts of history 's shameI riseUp from a past that 's rooted in painI riseI 'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that 's wondrously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.I riseI riseI rise. Maya Angelou