Lecture#7 ENGLISH

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

• Maya Angelou was an African American author, actress,

screenwriter, and civil rights activist best.

• She is best known for her memoir , I Know Why the Bird
Sings.

• This poem was published in 1969.

• Maya had a dark and difficult childhood.

• She was sexually assaulted in her childhood.

• Maya also experienced racial prejudice in Arkansas.

• The golden words of a legendry writer Toni Morrison

justifies Maya’s sufferings,

“Black women are ill treated twice; first she is black and second
she is a woman.”

• Because of traumatic experiences she lost her voice for

years.

• Finally she found her voice and wrote this poem at time of
Slavery.

Historical Background:
American Slavery

• American Slavery begins after Europeans settlement in

America.

• Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, African were

shipped from Africa to America.

• On the land of opportunity, this creature of God was

treated inhumanly on the basis of their ethnicity and
race.

• After civil war fought in 1865, slavetrade formally ended.

• Even though Black became the citizen of America but they were not seen as human beings.

Africans
are
smuggled
to America
by the
Colonizers
Slavetrade from Africa to America Slave Auction
Harlem Renaissance
(1920-30)

• The movement begins when the Blacks Artists from different groups decided to assert
themselves.

• Musician

• Singers

• Painters

• Poets

• Novelists

• They expressed their anger through their works.

They raised the questions :

• Are we not human?

• Why we are treated worst than animals?

• Why color discrimination became the reason of racial suppression?

• “I Know Why the caged Bird Sings” is an ode

to freedom, and a commentary on Freedom
and enslavement.

• As an social activist, Maya makes a strong

comment on slavery.

• Throughout her poem, the poetess illustrates

the nature of both freedom and captivity .

• She has created a contrast between the two birds using as the
metaphor.

• The poem is about the free bird and a captured bird.

• The free bird is shown in a state of tranquility.

• It has freedom to move about wherever it desires and it claims the entire sky and space.

Stanza One

The free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and float downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wings

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim a sky.

• “The free bird” represents White American.

• “float downstream”, “Dips his wings” refers to his authority to do anything he desires.

• “Dares to claim a sky” highlights his confidence

• to conquer the world.

Stanza Two

but a Bird that stalks

down the narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he open his throat to sing

Bird-metaphor

“Caged Bird” represents Black American and Slavery

Stanza Three

The caged bird sings

with fearful thrill

of the things unknown

but longed for still

and his tone is heard

on a distance hill

for the caged bird

sings for freedom

Thrill, Hill, Still- Rhyming Scheme

Mood- gloomy and Depress

Stanza Four

The free bird thinks of another breeze

And the trade wind soft through the signing trees

And the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

And he names the sky his own

• “The free bird thinks of another breeze” refers that he is determined to explore more in life.

• “the signing trees”, “the fat worms”,” the sky”- all these things are opportunities for the free
bird.

Stanza Five

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shout on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he open his throat to sing

• “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams”, this lines paint a vivid image of dreams
that cannot be fulfilled.

• “Grave” is a symbol of death.

• “his clipped wings and his tied feet” refers to slavery and the miserable condition of the bird.

Overall Meaning of the Poem

• America is the place where humanity has been afflicted throughout the centuries.

• Maya Angelou tries to represent her community and the pain of blacks through this piece of
literature.

• Using the metaphor of birds in comparison, she highlights the lives of black and white
Americans. How a white man freedom has given him confidence to claim the sky.

• On the other hand, the blacks are treated worst than animals.