‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’

Maya Angelou
Summary

‘I know why the Caged Bird sings’ by Maya Angelou is an incredibly important
poem in which the poet describes the experience of two different birds, one
free and one caged.

The free bird flies around the wind currents, feeling as though the sky belongs
to him. On the other hand, the caged bird can barely move in its prison. It’s
angry and frustrated. its wings are clipped and its feet are tied together. All it
can do is sing fearfully of the things it wants and does not know. It sings for its
freedom and everyone, even those far distant, can hear its song.

All the while, the free bird is focused on the breeze, the sounds the trees
make, the words in the ground he’s planning on eating. Once more,
the speaker reiterates the fact that the birds feels as though it owns the sky.
The poem concludes with the caged bird singing once more, as the
poet repeats the third stanza in its entirety.

Themes

‘I know why the Caged Bird sings’ is filled with powerful themes. These include
racial oppression, freedom/captivity, and happiness/sorrow. These themes are
all wrapped together in the poem through Angelou’s depiction of the two
birds, one free and one caged. The caged bird is an extended metaphor for
the Black community in America and around the world. Angelou is alluding to
the lived experience of millions of men, women, and children since the
beginning of time and the variety of oppressive tactics, whether physical,
mental, or economic employed by those in power. Black men, women, and
children see “through…bars” while the free bird sores in the sky. The bird sings
from a place of sadness rather than joy in order to convey a broader history of
sorrow.

Structure and Form

‘I know why the Caged Bird sings’ by Maya Angelou is a six stanza poem that is
separated into stanzas that range in length. Angelou chose to write the poem
in free verse. This means that there is no single rhyme scheme or metrical
pattern that unites all the lines. But there are some examples of an
iambic meter. This adds to the overall musicality of the poem. Iambs are also
generally referred to as “rising” feet in that the second syllable is stressed. This
plays into the content of the caged bird and the free bird. Additionally, readers
should take note of the instances in which the poet makes use of half-rhyme.

Literary Devices

Angelou makes use of several literary devices in ‘Caged Bird’. These include
but are not limited to alliteration, enjambment, and repetition. The latter,
repetition is seen throughout the poem but most prominently in the structure
of the stanzas and the continual reference to the “free bird” and “caged bird”.
One of the best examples is seen in the sixth stanzas in which the poet repeats
the entire third stanza.

Alliteration is another form of repetition but one that is solely focused on the
repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of multiple words. For
example, “sun” and “sky” at the end of stanza one and “cage / can” in lines
three and four of stanza two.

Enjambment is another important literary device that’s also quite common in

contemporary poetry. It appears when a poet chooses to cut off a sentence or
phrase with a line break before its natural stopping point. For example,
the transition between lines one and two of the first stanza as well as lines
three and four of the second stanza.

Stanza 1
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
(…)
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

The first verse is replete with the idea of freedom as reflected in the flight of the
free bird. Words like “leaps on the back of the wind “, “floats downstream” and
“dips his wing” capture the ease of movement which freedom brings along. The
free bird has it easy. Notice the ease with which all he needs to do is to leap on the
back of the wind which will lift him up, let him float downstream till the current
ends and he can dip his wing in the vibrant orange rays of the setting sun.
Unlike what is popularly understood, the motion of the free bird is not solely of
flight (in the strictest sense of the term) but that of gliding. The manner in which
the birds’ leaps leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the
current ends is the motion of gliding. Gliding, unlike flight, is low-energy
consuming activity which the poem describes as an effortless, leisurely movement.
In short, the free bird has it easy. It commands a great degree of privilege, perhaps
an exclusive white-privilege which gives him an enormous advantage over the
caged bird.

Stanza 2
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
(…)
his feet are tied
so, he opens his throat to sing.

In contrast, the second verse reflects the state of confinement which has
constrained the movement of the caged bird. Notice, the stanza begins with a big
but. The confinement is so powerful that the second bird is not only caged in a
physical sense but also in a psychological sense. We see that the bird not only
“stalks down his narrow cage” but also is unable to see through his “bars of rage“.
The metaphor ‘bars of rage’ shows that the cage within which he is confined is
both physical and psychological. Generations of racial discrimination has
rendered him blind with anger that he seldom sees through his bars of rage. And
rage isn’t a response but a reaction – a self-destructive reaction. But thankfully,
the emotion at least leads him to open his throat to sing.
“His wings are clipped and his feet are tied” reflect the external restrictions
imposed on the bird. However, these external restrictions are unable to cage
the spirit of the bird which bursts forth and asserts itself when he opens his
throat to sing. The contrast between stanzas one and two also make one amply
clear that one’s freedom and another’s confinement exists not merely in terms of
the physical space but also in terms of opportunities and possibilities which
one bird can access and the other cannot. The poem works with stark opposing
imageries, juxtaposed against each other and it is the literary device
of contrast which lends such force to the poem.

Stanza 3
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
(…)
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

The third stanza contains the most poignant and perhaps the most important
lines of the poem.
The caged bird hasn’t known the type of freedom that the free bird enjoys. He
hasn’t experienced what freedom is. However, what he knows for sure is that he
needs the freedom he’s long been denied and what’s more important, it hopes for
freedom without having experienced it because the core of its being recognizes
freedom as a basic necessity for existence which is why his tune of freedom is
heard even in the distant hill.

This stanza, when analyzed keeping in mind the first two stanzas bring to light an
important aspect of the poem: the relationship between speech and action. The
free bird has the freedom to move around and the expression of its freedom is
manifested in its action. The agency of the caged bird however lies in its
voice – in other words, its speech. True, the bird cannot fly in the open sky like its
free counterpart. But what the bird can do is to raise its voice against injustice
and oppression. This idea gains significance when one recalls that Angelou, along
with Martin Luther King Junior, was an active participant in the Civil Rights
movement.
Stanza 4
The free bird thinks of another breeze
(…)
and he names the sky his own

Whereas stanzas one and two highlight the physical aspect of freedom or the lack
of it, stanzas four and five mirror the same, albeit along the mental-
psychological plane. Again, we come back to the point of a person being shaped
by his/her socio-economic condition. One’s surroundings play an integral part in
shaping one’s aspirations and one’s vision of the Self.
The free bird, by the virtue of having lived in a free space is able to think of the
breeze, the trade winds, the sighing trees, the fat worms on a dawn bright lawn
and goes so far as to “name the sky his own”. The brilliant visual, aural and
tactile imagery captures the delight of the free bird in experiencing the sight of
the dawn bright lawn, the sound of the sighing trees as trade wind pass through
them and its gentle touch as he glides in the wind. The idea of ease and
abundance in the life of the free bird can be understood by the fact that the free
bird always has an access to fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn to satiate
his hunger.

Stanza 5

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

(…)
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird on the other hand, stands on the “grave of his dreams” and
the damage that has been done to his psyche can be gauged by the fact that his
shadow shouts on a “nightmare scream” resulting from the frustration and the
confinement his entire life has been subjected to. Notice the imagery of death
and suffering conjured by words like ‘grave ‘, ‘nightmare ‘and ‘scream ‘. His feet
and wings have been tied down due to which he “opens his throat to sing”.

The sixth stanza is a refrain of the third stanza which is in turn a bold assertion of
the agency of the caged bird. The reiteration of the song of this caged bird and
the surety of the song’s effectiveness reflects the speaker’s strong faith in
the power of the bird’s song. And this faith is derived from the fact that the
caged bird longs for a condition which is intrinsically attached to its very
existence: the state of being free.
Through the freedom-unfreedom state of the two birds, one thing becomes very
clear: that freedom is a precondition to equality and that self-respect is
necessary for the caged bird to be at peace with himself and his surroundings. And
as long as his wings are clipped wings and his feet are tied, the caged bird will
continue to sing of freedom.
” A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.