Still+I+Rise

Use the link below to visit and read the poem "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou. Read the poem several times until you really know what is going on.

AFTER you have read the poem several times, use your knowledge and understanding to complete the chart. When you have completed everything - email me completed chart.

[|Still I Rise - by Maya Angelou] From the Academy of American Poets URL: []

With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise.
 * **Still I Rise** ||
 * ||  || You may write me down in history
 * ||  || You may write me down in history

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. ||
 * From //And Still I Rise// by Maya Angelou. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou. The poem reproduced here is for nonprofit educational purposes only. ||
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