See Hawaii class perform this poem.

This poem is linked to the theme of ‘change’.  There is a change in tone, there is a change in the way that Maya Angelou makes you think about her.  Clearly, this is linked to Article 19: The right to be protected from being mistreated, in body or mind. Maya Angelou protects herself through the power of self-confidence and poetry.

Still I Rise – By Maya Angelou, 1928 – 2014

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

You may write me down in history,

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the 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?

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. x3

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

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.