1. By: Maya Angelou

2. You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies

3. But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

4. Does my sassiness upset you?
Are you upset with gloom?

5. ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

6. Just like moons and like suns

7. With certainty of tides

8. Just like hopes springing high
Still I rise

9. Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?

10. Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?

11. ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Don’t you take it awfully hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

12. You may shoot me with your words,
Hopeless
Ugly
Worthless
Coward
Lousy
Stupid
Loser
Dumb
Fat
You may cut me with your eyes

13. You may kill me with your hatefulness
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

14. At the meeting of my thighs?
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?

15. Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise

16. Up from the past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
Up from the past that’s rooted in pain

17. I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide

18. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise

19. Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise

20. I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

21. I rise
I rise
I rise.

22. Maya Angelou Born April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri
Died May 28, 2014 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist

23. Analysis Lyric poem Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells – simile
I rise – Repetition
Rhyme scheme – ABCB, EFGF
I am a black ocean – metaphor
Symbolism – oil wells = wealth
You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness – hyperbole
Huts of history – Alliteration