You may write me down in history
With your bitter,
t

w

                                    t
                           e

         d
      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?
           ’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
s  h  o  o  t  

 m     e
                               with your words,
                                         You may c u t
                                                      m e
                                                    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

                                             d


                                             a

                                             n

                  c

         e

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,

l
ea
p
i
n
g
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.