Comparisons (Using Irony)
There is a irony from stanza 1 to stanza 2.
The poet compares the life of a free bird and a caged birds. The free bird dare to claim the sky but the caged bird can seldom see through his bar of rage. The free bird dips his wings in the orange sun rays but the caged bird’s wings are clipped and feet are tied. These indicates the comparison between the white and the black. Through tradition and history, whites have been given hopes and spirit; blacks are servile and bound by tradition. This controversy is condoned and accepted. Tradition has caused the death of black dreams and hope.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a poem that represents many ideas, themes, and thoughts. 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. Maya Angelou is explaining 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 colour. 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. This poem has several themes, such as discrimination, racism, and perseverance.
In the first stanza, the free bird is described. "leaps", "floats", "dares", "claim" are used to describe the free bird, which indicates how courageous, powerful and arrogant it is.
However, the song doesn't have a happy tune. It's a desperate cry for freedom. There's a description of the cage that the bird is in, "bars of rage". It shows similarities to being in a prison.
There are no descriptions of landscape from the caged bird, "of things unknown/ but longed for still". He can't see, he doesn't know
In the third stanza, it says that the tone that the bird is singing on it is a sad and depressed tone (fearful trill). It sings for things that it has never experience but is desperate to. It sings so loud that it is heard all the way on a 'distant hill‘. Distant hill can also mean that the hope that the bird is singing for it is still very far.
In the fourth stanza, it goes back to the free bird who is thinking now of changing its location. We can know this because it writes 'thinks of another breeze‘. The free bird can experience all the comforts, the soft winds and the rich food. It leads a very luxurious life.
In the fifth stanza, it comes back to the caged bird. The first and second sentence - “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream" this tells us that the caged bird is very disappointed and losing hope. His screams for help are now hollow echoes because long neglect and abuse has broken his heart.
The last stanza is the same as the third stanza. This is because the writer wanted to emphasis the point that yet hope is still far and nothing is changing.
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a short story write by Maya Angelou
This poem is written after the poet, Maya Angelou wrote the book “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”. The poem represents racial issues through the use of birds. In this poem, writer uses both free bird and caged bird as a metaphor to the white and the black respectively. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings can be interpreted as the black race being held back from freedom by their skin colour.
Through tradition and history, whites have been given hopes and spirit; blacks are servile and bound by tradition. This controversy is condoned and accepted. Tradition has caused the death of black dreams and hope. If a black person existed retaining the same amount of knowledge, skill, and talent of a white person, who would succeed more in life? The poem infers that the probable answer would be a white person, because blacks are "caged" by their colour. Opportunities infinitely exist for whites, whereas the same is false for blacks.The quotation beside is a significant stanza of the poem. The stanza explicitly displays the true meaning of the poem and defines actions of a "caged bird." Blackness of skin acts as a barrier for the black race; it prevents freedom for a person. The freedom, and feelings of a white person's existence are unknown to one who is black. Here, Maya's belief for freedom and equality is beginning to spread among the black race. She "sings" for freedom.