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I know why the caged bird sings
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This is a summary, important points and explanation of the poem "I know why the caged bird sings "by Maya Angelou
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I know why the caged bird singsMaya angelou
About the poet :
Maya Angelou (1928-1914) is a poet and civil right activist from America whose
activism and writings made her popular throughout the world. She has seven in
number, which narrates the tales written a series of autobiographies of her
hardship that she encountered in her life. Apart from her autobiographies, her
essays, her collection of poems, her plays and other scripts for TV shows and
movies brought her international acclaim. The volume of poem "I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings", published in 1969, brought her to limelight in the literary world
and later her activism for civil rights made her a renowned figure throughout the
world.
Poem at a glance :
~A free bird flies in any direction that it wants to and claims the sky.
~A caged bird is tied within its cage and therefore can only sing.
~The caged bird sings about the things which it aspires to see and experience.
~Thus the caged bird sings of things unknown to it.
~It sings about freedom.
~The shrill note of the caged bird's song seems like the scream of one who sees
a nightmare.
Summary :
Maya Angelou's poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" makes an attempt to
make a comparison between the free bird and the caged bird to suggest that the
caged bird cannot fly to his heart's wish and its freedom is limited to its narrow
cage and therefore has nothing to do but to sing of his unfulfilled dreams of never
being able to fly. The rendition of the sorrowful song of the caged bird as against
the freedom of the free bird makes us wonder at the pain that the caged bird
renders in its song.
Justification of the title :
The title of the poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" makes us wonder what
the poet knows which we do not know. The phrase "I know" comes as a jolt to the
readers in the sense that as if the poet only knows and the readers don't. It is true
that we all have heard that the bird which is kept in the cage sings; but none of us
has pondered over the reasons of its singing, leave alone the content of what it
must be singing about. The poet with her sensibilities has tried to decipher the
reasons of its song as well as its content and therefore the poet "knows". And as the
poet tells the story of the caged bird and its anguish in the poem in comparison to
the freedom of the free bird we realize the throbbing pain of the caged bird.
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