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And Still I Rise
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And Still I Rise
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And Still I Rise
Audiobook (abridged)22 minutes

And Still I Rise

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Maya Angelou's unforgettable collection of poetry lends its name to the documentary film about her life, And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS's American Masters.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Thus begins "Phenomenal Woman," just one of the beloved poems collected here in Maya Angelou's third book of verse. These poems are powerful, distinctive, and fresh-and, as always, full of the lifting rhythms of love and remembering. And Still I Rise is written from the heart, a celebration of life as only Maya Angelou has discovered it.

"It is true poetry she is writing," M.F.K. Fisher has observed, "not just rhythm, the beat, rhymes. I find it very moving and at times beautiful. It has an innate purity about it, unquenchable dignity. . . . It is astounding, flabbergasting, to recognize it, in all the words I read every day and night . . . it gives me heart, to hear so clearly the caged bird singing and to understand her notes."

LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 29, 2005
ISBN9780739334683
Unavailable
And Still I Rise

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Reviews for And Still I Rise

Rating: 4.532818532818533 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

259 ratings16 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Maya Angelou is one of America's great poets, and this is one of her most treasured collections. These poems are about the very personal, about being black in America, and about being a woman. The individual poems are mostly short, but taken together they build up a layered and complex whole. Angelou express the strength and the struggles of the working poor,of women, of black Americans, and the intersection of those three identities.

    And in this audio edition we hear her words in her own voice, strong, a little rough, and rich with feeling and expression.

    Highly recommended.

    I bought this audiobook.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A deep and pleasant journey through the soul of Maya Angelou. Just a wonderful walk amoung the flowers. So many optimistic, beautiful visions through the eyes of a poet and a visionary.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of my favorite poetry collection read by the author.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Maya Angelou is a guarantee, I enjoyed it!! A must read
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    love it love it love it love it love it
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely beautiful. I loved hearing Maya Angelou as the narrator. Listening to the was a great experience. I highly recommend this.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Love the book... I wish it was bit longer though
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Listening to this has been the sweetest 22 minutes ever.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have read these poems before but it was wonderful to hear Angelou say them! While "And Still I Rise" is the most famous, all of the poems in this short collection are worth listening to.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A collection of beautiful poems read by the author. Angelou has a great speaking voice and enriches the poems with tone, passion, and rhythm.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I've meant to try reading Maya Angelou's poetry for a long time -- hers is a name I've seemingly always known, but I couldn't name an individual poem I'd read or identify her voice and style. Maybe that's partly why I found this disappointing: I sort of saved her up, for a rainy day, because so many people thought so much of her.I'm not a big fan of her style, it transpires. Her rhymes feel unnatural, forced -- maybe there's just too many of them for me. In any case, only a few of these poems flowed well for me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really loved listening to this audio of Maya reading her own work. Her voice has such richness and power, I'm so glad to have this, even though she has left us.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you only ever read one collection of poems, let it be this one.

    My edition was barely 100 pages, and I read a poem a night at first, trying to savour the book as much as possible.

    Her prose is vivid. It moves, it breathes, it sings.

    Maya Angelou celebrates so many things in this humble little collection. She talks about sexuality, about gender, about race, about poverty. And she does it all in a graceful way.

    She taught me so much about being present, about being in the moment and about myself.

    I cried reading more than one of her poems, and wondered how someone could create something so beautiful with so few words.

    My only regret is I didn't read this book sooner.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Inspiring, and while slim, this edition is nice as it pairs the poem with art by Diego Rivera.Still I Rise------------You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut, 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 wellsPumping 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 minesDiggin’ 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 surpriseThat I dance like I’ve got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs?Out of the huts of history’s shame I riseUp from a past that’s rooted in pain I riseI’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I riseInto a daybreak that’s wondrously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.I riseI riseI rise.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These poems are about life – pride, love, struggles, and success – facing all of it and uplifting ourselves to come out on top of all our difficulties. The poems are mainly about uplifting yourself regardless of your situation. I was drawn to this book of poems by the title of the book. She writes in a simple matter of fact way about everyday things that we can relate to. I really enjoyed her poems Phenomenal Woman, and Still I Rise; they are very strong and inspiring poems.I believe this book is best suited for older children probably during heritage months.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I don't read a lot of poetry. Actually, I am not sure that I had ever read a full collection of modern poetry in my life. But my library shelves the poetry next to the short stories so I had been looking at them every time I look for some stories. And then decided to try them.I love classical poetry and I prefer my poetry rhyming (or at least with some rhythm in it). White poetry just does not work for me - it can make me imagine a scene but I cannot connect to it on the emotional level. Angelou's verses vary between the poems - there are some which are perfectly rhyming and then there are some that are just long flowery sentences split into lines in random places with no visible reason. Most of them made the picture they were describing stand out and fleshed the scenes in a way that a newspaper account cannot. So in a way, they did their job. But still - something was missing. They would have worked just as well in prose - except that they would have been too short to be ever published. And then there are the poems that sound like a song, or like a chant. The text itself lacks a rhythm but there is enough repetition to actually make it work. 32 poems later, I still do not like white verse. I am happy that I read it and some of these scenes will stay with me for awhile. And I think I will try some more poetry in the next months.