|
|
|
You may write me down in history
|
A
|
With your bitter, twisted lies,
|
|
You may trod me in the very dirt
|
A
|
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
|
|
|
|
Does my sassiness upset you?
|
B
|
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,
|
C
|
With the certainty of tides,
|
|
Just like hopes springing high,
|
C
|
Still I'll rise.
|
|
|
|
Did you want to see me broken?
|
A
|
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
|
|
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
|
A
|
Weakened by my soulful cries?
|
|
|
|
Does my haughtiness offend you?
|
D
|
Don't you take it awful hard
|
|
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
|
D
|
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
|
|
You may shoot me with your words,
|
A
|
You may cut me with your eyes,
|
|
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
|
A
|
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
|
|
|
|
Does my sexiness upset you?
|
A
|
Does it come as a surprise
|
|
That I dance like I've got diamonds
|
A
|
At the meeting of my thighs?
|
|
|
E
|
Out of the huts of history’s shame
|
A
|
I rise
|
E
|
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
|
A
|
I rise
|
F
|
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
|
F
|
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
|
|
|
G
|
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
|
A
|
I rise
|
G
|
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
|
A
|
I rise
|
H
|
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
|
H
|
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
|
A
|
I rise
|
A
|
I rise
|
A
|
I rise
|