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?
  • 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.