#Caged bird by maya angelou free#

#Caged bird by maya angelou free#

The poem begins unexpectedly (given the title) with a description of the life of a free bird. In fact, the only freedom left for him is to open his throat to sing. He can’t fly because his wings are clipped – he can barely even see through the narrow bars of his cage. He can only stalk from one end of his cage to the other. In this poem, Angelou compares the life of a bird who is free to fly, enjoy nature and relax when he pleases, with a bird shut up in a cage.

Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings tells of her childhood growing up in America before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public and began to tackle discrimination in employment, education and other spheres of life. Using birds as a motif to represent parts of the human condition is not unusual in literature: poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote The Caged Skylark, in which his caged bird was a metaphor for being trapped in our own bodies. His wings are clipped and his feet are tied You may agree with me though, when you read Caged Bird, that it does both: A free bird leapsĪnd the trade winds soft through the sighing breezeĪnd the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawnīut a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams Seemingly quite slight next to her autobiographical writing and essays, this poem stands out: her poetry was more often appreciated for the light it shone on the lives of people in America from the time of slavery to the civil rights movement of the 1960s than for its artistic craft. Her list of awards and accolades eclipses most other writers: she received over 50 honorary degrees, for a start, and in 2010, after a lifetime of acting, writing, directing, activism, teaching – even singing, dancing and composing – Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honour) by President Obama. It’s hard to overestimate Maya Angelou’s achievements in literature and other spheres of public life, from her beginnings in St Louis, 1928 to her recent death in 2014. She… helped generations of Americans find their rainbow amidst the clouds…” Barack Obama, on the passing of Maya Angelou, 2014 “One of the brightest lights of our time – a brilliant writer and a fierce friend.