{ Maya Angelou: Still I Rise. }

[delga]

Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou

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 back yard.

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.

--

The end of this poem always brings to mind Plath's Lady Lazarus (which ends, Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / and I eat men like air), because of the language, and also because of that sense of empowerment. Except Plath will forever be claiming death as her domain, trying to perfect her reach, whilst Maya Angelou is putting her hands into the soil of the earth and saying, yes, this is mine, too, yes, yes. I love that image of the water staking claim - I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, / Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Comments

[atlashrugged.livejournal.com]

I really love the line about shoulders. Plath is probably the first female poet that made me crazy. I suddenly feel like following your poetry tag.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

I came to Plath when I was 15, and I've since ripped Ariel to pieces. It's one of my all-time favourite collections.

Follow away! There's not too much on it as of yet (actually, I take that back - I just didn't realise how much) but I'm hoping to widen my variety somewhat.

[atlashrugged.livejournal.com]

I love The Bell Jar too. I love everything at some point, but parts of that book were like someone was stabbing me with my own heart.

I go through a lot of poetry anthologies and some blogs when looking for new things to read. I was kind of in an Aeschylus phase with

Prometheus Bound

, but there's really only one translation I like. Oh, actually, Ted Hughes did

Oresteia

and I like that well enough. Right now I'm reading Wislawa Szymborska, but that's mostly until I find something new.

[powerof3.livejournal.com]

I ♥ Maya Angelou. She is fantastic.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

She is! The rhythms of her language pulsate wonderfully.