Caged Bird by Maya Angelou Analysis and Concise History
Caged Bird: I guess you haven’t read Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird“, do not worry, I have here on this spot a concise history of her as well as the poem “Caged Bird”. You will also read a clear analysis of the poem.
About Maya Angelou and the Poem “Caged Bird”
A 1969 autobiography detailing the early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It is a coming-of-age novel, the first in a seven-volume series, which shows how character resilience and a love of literature can help resolve prejudice and trauma.
The book starts when Maya, three, and her older brother are sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother and ends when at the age of 16, Maya becomes a mother. Maya turns from a victim of bigotry with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified young woman able to react to discrimination in the course of Caged Bird.
Her friend writer James Baldwin and her publisher, Robert Loomis, asked Angelou to write an autobiography that was also a piece of literature.
Reviewers frequently identify Caged Bird as autobiographical fiction because Angelou uses thematic development and other fiction-friendly techniques, but it is characterized by the prevalent critical view as an autobiography, a genre she seeks to criticize, alter, and extend.
In the years after the Civil Rights Movement, the book covers themes common to autobiographies published by black American women: a celebration of Black motherhood; a critique of racism; the importance of family; and the quest for independence, personal dignity, and self-definition.
In 1970, Caged Bird was nominated for a National Book Award and remained for two years on the New York Times paperback bestseller list.
It has been used from high schools to colleges in educational environments, and the book has been praised for establishing new literary outlets for American memoirs.
However, in some schools and libraries, the book’s explicit portrayal of childhood rape, prejudice, and sexuality has caused it to be questioned or banned.
Caged Bird
A free bird leapson the back of the windand floats downstreamtill the current endsand dips his wingin the orange sun raysand dares to claim the sky.But a bird that stalksdown his narrow cagecan seldom see throughhis bars of ragehis wings are clipped andhis feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird singswith a fearful trillof things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hillfor the caged birdsings of freedom.The free bird thinks of another breezeand the trade winds soft through the sighing treesand the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawnand he names the sky his ownBut a caged bird stands on the grave of dreamshis shadow shouts on a nightmare screamhis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird singswith a fearful trillof things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hillfor the caged birdsings of freedom.By MAYA ANGELOU – 1969
Caged Bird – In 1970, Caged Bird was nominated for a National Book Award and remained for two years on the New York Times paperback bestseller list.
It has been used from high schools to colleges in educational environments, and the book has been praised for establishing new literary outlets for American memoirs.
However, in some schools and libraries, the book’s explicit portrayal of childhood rape, prejudice, and sexuality has caused it to be questioned or banned.