I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

I know why the caged bird sings is a poem by Maya Angelou, an American writer and acclaimed poet. Maya Angelou grew up at a time when racism was still being practiced and racial prejudice was in great proportions across the states, out of which she wrote this poem.

This poem appealed to me mostly because I am very interested in American black history and because I have heard a lot about Maya Angelou. But while lightly studying her, her work and especially this poem, I was introduced into the intrigues of her life.

Coincidentally, “I know why the caged bird sings” is one of Maya Angelou’s most renowned works. Apart from the poem, it is also a book, an autobiography which dealt with her growing up period exposing the hardships by oppression of both race and sex. In it, she opened up about rape which could steal the theme of this poem from racism.

She wrote the poem in third person, understanding both worlds of the free and the oppressed but obviously experiencing the suffering as a part of the victim. The feelings disclose her as the caged bird. She is the caged bird that knows about the sun and the free open skies but does not fly out there. She knows of the other bird that lives in that free world flying above and down the stream and feeding luxuriously.

It is not easy to dissect this poem by analysing the writer. Maya Angelou is too compound for one to feel that they understand her work without her input in explaining it. The caged bird could be interpreted in two ways, first as I quickly saw it, as a voice against racial prejudice or/and slavery, or two a voice against female discrimination.

In this poem, Maya Angelou uses metaphors throughout; though to sing could be just that since the black people were known to sing a lot to express themselves during that time. She uses personification of people as birds and her tone is of sadness wrapped with a dreamy longing.

She uses imagery to create the paths, as in the current and downstream, and the beautiful world outside, the cage as the extremely limited rights and harsh conditions, while the sun and the sky remain the ultimate freedom. Free bird is free to explore as much and as far as it wishes while the caged bird only has the confined space to sing its anger and frustrations in. 

P Bryan Njoroge.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun 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.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the 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
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

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. 

Maya Angelou

(Maya Angelou's Tribute For Nelson Mandela, His Day Is Done.)