"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?

Why are you beset with gloom?

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?

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.

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.

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

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.