Maya Angelou is an African American poet who was in St. Louis Missouri, on April 4, 1928. In her lifetime, she has written many aspiring poems about love, genders, and freedom. Recently, I came across one that drew me in from the opening line. The name of the poem is "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." In the beginning, Maya writes about a free bird, and how lucky it is to feel the wind against its back, and fly in the orange rays of the sun. That is the happy part. She then switches almost instantly to a more melancholy tone. It is described that a caged bird does not have the luxury of soaring freely. Instead, it is trapped behind its "bars of rage." All body parts are clipped together to make him locked up, except for the throat. All that's left for it to do is sing.
English: Maya Angelou reciting her poem, "On the P...
Maya Angelou with Bloomberg and Nadler
Cover from the first edition of I Know Why the Cag...The rest of the poem describes the differences between a free bird, and a caged bird, and why the caged bird has nothing to do but sing.
I personally feel that this is a touching poem. It does not have to relate to only birds, but humans too. There are some people that feel trapped, and like they just want to break free of all the strings holding them down. I sometimes feel like a caged bird. It seems as if sometimes I am trapped and resort to nothing, but wanting to break free. A poem like this could relate to many people.