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.
Word notes
- Beset: (verb) to trouble or harass persistently; to surround or hem in.
- Sassiness: (noun) impudent or disrespectful behavior; a lively, spirited attitude.
- Haughtiness: (noun) the quality of being arrogantly superior and disdainful.
- Hatefulness: (noun) the quality of being full of hate or malice; extreme dislike or aversion.
- Sexiness: (noun) the quality or characteristic of being sexually attractive or appealing.
- Tides: (noun) the regular rise and fall of the sea, caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun.
- Soulful: (adjective) full of or expressing deep emotion or feeling.
- Diggin’: (informal) short for “digging”, which means to excavate or delve into something.
- Teardrops: (noun) tears, often metaphorically referring to sadness or grief.
- Soulful: (adjective) full of or expressing deep emotion or feeling.
- Gloom: (noun) a state of darkness, sadness, or despair.
- Leaping: (verb) jumping or springing suddenly or forcefully.
Prose
Semester I
- An Astrologer’s Day – R K Narayan
- The Swami and Mother- Worship – Sister Nivedita
- Amarnath – Sister Nivedita
Semester II
- The Garden Party- Katherine Mansfield
- Alias Jimmy Valentine- o’ Henry
- Of Studies – Francis Bacon
- Nobel Lecture – Mother Teresa
Verse
Semester I
- Composed Upon Westminster Bridge- William Wordsworth
- The Bangle Sellers – Sarojini Naidu
- The Second Coming – W B Yeats
Semester II
Rapid Reader
Semester I
Semester II
