"Still I Rise" - Full text online at poets.org http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15623
And Still I Rise (1978)
Quotes from work
And Still I Rise
And Still I Rise is author Maya Angelou's third volume of poetry, published by Random House in 1978. It was published during one of the most productive periods in Angelou's career; she had written three autobiographies and published two other volumes of poetry up to that point. Angelou considered herself a poet and a playwright, but was best known for her seven autobiographies, especially her first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, although her poetry has also been successful. She began, early in her writing career, alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry. Although her poetry collections have been best-sellers, they have not received serious critical attention.
"Still I Rise"
Source: And Still I Rise (1978)
"Still I Rise"
And Still I Rise (1978)
“You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.”
"Still I Rise"
And Still I Rise (1978)
Context: 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.
"Just for a Time"
And Still I Rise (1978)
“Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise”
"Still I Rise"
And Still I Rise (1978)
Context: 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.
“I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.”
"Still I Rise"
And Still I Rise (1978)
Context: 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.
