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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. |
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Definition
| Maya Angelou gives her heart and soul to declare that nothing and no one could oppress her or keep her down. She doesn’t care what the history books saw, for she knows they are full of “twisted lies.” She will not let it bother her that others “trod” her “in the very dirt.” She proclaims that if she is trodden in the dirt, she will rise like dust. |
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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. |
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Definition
| In the second stanza, she asks a question. This is an interesting question, as she refers to her own tone as “sassiness” and asks the hearer if her sassy tone is upsetting. The poet notices that the people around her in her society are “beset with gloom” when she succeeds. She questions this. She knows that she is succeeded in life, in her writing, and as a woman. The “oil wells pumping in [her] living room” symbolize her success. |
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Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries? |
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Definition
The speaker’s questions in this stanza are direct, pertinent, and appropriately accusing. She knows that her own success is received with bitterness by the racist people in her society. So she directs these questions at a society that has long tried to keep her oppressed. She asks them if they want to see her broken, oppressed, depressed, and bitter.
She asks these questions know that this indeed is what many in society wanted. They did not want to see a black woman rise out of the oppression of her society and succeed. The speaker knows this and she draws attention to it with these revealing, yet cutting questions. |
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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. |
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Definition
| In this stanza, she lets society know that no matter what it does to oppress her, it will not succeed. The poet lets society know that it cannot prevail against her with words or looks. She proclaims that society cannot prevail against her even if it managed to have her killed because of its hatefulness. She claims that she will still “like air” rise. |
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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? |
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Definition
| The speaker continues her questioning of society. By this time in the poem, it becomes apparent that the speaker has placed society on trial and is now in the process of cross-examination. She knows the answers to these questions, but to ask them is to incriminate the offender. While she asks incriminating questions, she simultaneously reveals incredible self-confidence despite the oppression of society. |
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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. |
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Definition
| In this stanza, the speaker finally refers to the past- the reason that she is oppressed and resented to this day. She calls slavery “history’s shame” and she proclaims that she will not be held down by the past, even if it is “rooted in pain.” |
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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. |
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Definition
In the final stanza, the speaker reveals that she intends to leave behind all the effects of slavery and the history of oppression with the intent to rise above it. She claims that she will leave behind the “terror and fear” and that she will rise above the pain and the oppression “Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear.”
The speaker does not intend to allow the hatefulness of society or the pain of the past to stop her from becoming all that she ever dreamed of being. For this reason, she repeats three times, “I rise.” |
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Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still, I’ll rise. |
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Definition
| In this stanza, she compares herself to the moon and the sun as they are affected by the tides. This gives the reader the understanding that the speaker has no other choice but to rise out of her affliction. Try as a society might keep her oppressed, it is in her nature to rise and stand against oppression just as it is the nature of the tides to respond to the moon. |
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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. |
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Definition
She continues with the questions directed at a racist society when she asks whether her “haughtiness” is offensive. She knows that society resents seeing a black woman full of pride. This question has an air of sarcasm which serves to point out the hypocrisy of society as it is embittered by the success of one that it has tried to oppress. The speaker continues in a sarcastic tone as she pretends to comfort the hearer.
The poet says, “don’t you take it awful hard.” This is her sarcastic way of pretending to care for those who resent her success. She continues, however, to in a sense “flaunt” her success before the society that has always oppressed her. She claims that she has “gold mines” and that she laughs at the success she has found. |
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I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong. |
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Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then. |
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Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed— |
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