I KNOW WHY THE

CAGED BIRD
SINGS
BY
GROUP 4
 H E
Y T S
W H IN G
OW D S
N I R
I K ED B
A G
C By
Maya Angelou
 A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.
But a BIRD that stalks down his
narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of
rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are
tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
But a caged BIRD stands on the grave
of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare
scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are
tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill

Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant
hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
This poem states that there are two birds, one trapped in a cage, and the other in free and
flying in the sky. The trapped bird is an African American man or woman, while the free bird
is a white man or woman.

The poem is portraying the relationship between an African American person and a
Caucasian person. The author explains that the feelings of racial discrimination, segregation,
and domination. The poem describes how she was the bird that was trapped and tied up and
unable to reach freedom.

The caged bird can be interpreted as the black race being held back from freedom by their
skin color. The fat worms and breeze in the poem symbolize hope and opportunity.

In the poem it is constantly repeated that "his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he
opens his throat to sing", this is implying that even though this bird is trapped it still has
hope. The bird will continue to persevere and not give up.

You can restrain, tie down, lock up, confine, or hold a person back but you can't keep them
from speaking, talking and/or singing. be it out loud or within, it can't be done.
 Discrimination

THEME

Perseverance Racism
LITERARY INTERPRETATION OF THE POEM

A tale of sorrow, and desire, comparing a free bird to a caged bird. This poem has a
deeper meaning that is the ongoing plight to end the racial segregation in the United
States but can be applied to our country where we have two groups of power in conflict
with each other.

Maya Angelou expresses in her poem with the use of two opposite lives living in the
same society, with the free and caged bird.

The poem is set to be in United States during African -American and white people
crisis.

The people during the time weren't able to create a multicultural society and was not
able to accept the present of outsiders with different physical appearance like skin
colour .
 Literary Device
Metaphor
• a bird struggling to escape its cage as a
"central image" throughout all of her
autobiographies
• imprisonment from the racism she sees
as inherent in Stamps, Arkansas, and
her continuing experiences of other
experiences she views as
imprisonment, like racial discrimination,
drugs, marriage, and the economic
system
• supposed contradiction of the bird
singing in the midst of its struggle
Comparison
• White people represent a free bird able
to "[leap] on the back of wind", and do
as he, or she chooses. The line "The
free bird thinks of ... the fat worms
waiting on a dawn-bright law and
names the sky his own" demonstrates
that most of the white society cares
more about their wealth and very little
about the black community's
oppression.
• black citizens of the United States are
very much like a caged bird, "his wings
are clipped and his feet are tied..."
except for that the bars on a black
citizens cage, that restrict him from the
joys of freedom and give him a "grave
of dreams", are not made of cheap
metal or plastic, but of racist
oppression, discrimination, and
segregation.
 It is told from
the author’s
point of view

Rhyme and
Poetic Repetition (His)-
“His bar of rage,
Rhythm – AABB-
stanza 4
Devices His wings are
dipped and , His
and Style feet are tied

Imagery - “The
trade winds soft
through the
sighing trees”
 Message from the Poem
• Finally in her last line of the poem, she says, "for the caged bird
sings of freedom", she means that the plight for equality is slowly
improving, but is nowhere near the end, and the only way to get
to the end is to make everyone aware of this social injustice.

It is very clear that Angelou believes in equality for all of mankind

and declares through her poem that even though there are social
injustices in life, hope and persistence can lessen, and eventually
get rid of segregation. This poem tries to show that even though
the free bird and the caged bird are still birds, one is free and the
other is a prisoner, despite that they both deserve freedom and
the opportunity to be happy.
 Reference
http://masterwordsmith-unplugged.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-
know-why-caged-bird-sings.html