![]() 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 walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. I say, It’s in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. When I try to show them, They say they still can’t see. Phenomenal woman, that’s me. They try so much But they can’t touch My inner mystery. ![]() 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. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. 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.ĭoes my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? In the poem’s opening stanza, the speaker implies that she doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of a woman propped up by contemporary society. I say, Its in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. When I try to show them, They say they still cant see. I say, Its in the arch of my back, the sun of my smile, the ride of my breasts, the grace of my style. ![]() When I try to show them they say they still cant see. They try so much, but they cant touch my inner mystery. ![]() They try so much But they cant touch My inner mystery. Men themselves have wondered what they see in me. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.ĭid you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?ĭoes 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. The speaker of Phenomenal Woman is a spirited woman who, with a breezy confidence, proudly defies her society’s conventional notions of what makes women attractive. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. 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.ĭoes 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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