And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems
Maya Angelou
Nov 2005 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Maya Angelou
4.9star
54 reviewsreport
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22 min
Unabridged
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“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.”
Â
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.
Â
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.
Â
“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.”
Ratings and reviews
4.9
54 reviews
Madeleine Simmons
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March 27, 2018
It was wonderful to hear her voice reading her own work!🎙️♥️ I wanted to hear More! The address said that it was 30 minutes so, I expected to hear that much but, maybe it meant that the whole thing was 30 minutes long(?)... Idk, it's my first time checking out an Audio Book!♥️ Very cool for someone like me who's eyesight is slowly fading away, now with Bifocals and headaches when I read too long... I used to read all night when I was younger! Thanks for this first experience!♥️
29 people found this review helpful
Cookie Gee
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August 21, 2019
Just beautiful Love hearing Dr. Maya Angelou’s words come alive The her voice. When I can I am certainly going to buy as many of her pieces of work as I can. I will share it with my current generation and generations to come
14 people found this review helpful
A Google user
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February 22, 2019
heartfelt warms my heart i need this in my life!
About the author
Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Heart of a Woman, she wrote numerous volumes of poetry, among them Phenomenal Woman, And Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning, and Mother. Maya Angelou died in 2014.
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