I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Poem

This sample essay on I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Poem reveals arguments and important aspects of this topic. Read this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs and the conclusion below.

I am going to compare two poems called ” I know why the caged bird sings” By Maya Angelou and ” Ego Tripping” By Nikki Giovanni. Both of these poems are about wanting to be free and what they went through their life, however each of the poems has its own perspective, “I know why the caged bird sings” is rather in a more negative mood because it is saying she wants to be free, “Ego Tripping” is more positive because she is saying how free she is and how good her life is.

To start I will analyse ” I know why the caged bird sings” By Maya Angelou.

In the poem Maya Angelou is talking about black people being trapped and have no say, She betray them by bird trapped in a cage with no speech, The poem mentions Problems she faces throughout her life, and says it’s no different being free or not because she can’t do anything.

“Caged Bird” is a poem about freedom. The free bird symbolizes a person from the white society, and the caged bird symbolizes a person from the black society.

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. The second stanza starts with a “But”, which immediately awakens negative feelings.

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The words used to describe the caged bird are “stalks”, “clipped” and “tied”, the bird is not able to do what it wants. Also, in the second stanza, unexpectedly the caged bird “opens his throat to sing”. This action is very ironic, as normally you sing when you are happy, and we expect the free bird to do that.

Theme Of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Poem

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 the caged birds own point of view, “of things unknown but longed for still”. He can’t see, he doesn’t know. The free bird almost takes things for granted, “dips his wing in the orange sun’s rays”. Nevertheless, the caged bird can appreciate them. In the third stanza, “trill”, “hill” and “still”, “heard” and “bird” do rhyme.

Rhyme tries to create a pattern, a neatness. Perhaps like the cage that contains the bird that wants to break free. The bird’s Life is repentant, maybe that’s why there’s a rhyme. Another pattern in the poem is between the stanzas: free bird, caged bird, refrain about caged bird; free bird, caged bird, refrain about caged bird. The refrain along with the phrase “caged bird” repeated in the beginning of all the stanzas which are about the caged bird, are for emphasis.

It gives a feeling of how desperate he is. In the fourth stanza, the lines start to get Longer. This may be Linked to having more space to move, and therefore freedom- as it talks about the free bird. In the 3rd and 4th Lines, “lawn” and “own” are par rhymes, and “own” is Like a faint echo of the sound. In the 5th stanza, the Longer Lines may be Linked with the possibility of the bird being free. The words used to describe both the free and the caged bird almost sound the same, but they are different.

Perhaps it reflects the two birds that are different whilst the caged bird wants to be Like the free bird. In the last stanza the first couple of lines are saying how the black people wish for freedom and people far away know that they are wishing to be free. In the last line she writes ” for the cadged bird sings for freedom” this is a catchy ending people the reader remembers that most, the audience get told that several times so it is constantly being thrown at them The themes in this poem are freedom, unfairness, slavery and isolation.

It may be Linked with gender, individuals, adults Limiting the youth, racial inequality, someone in prison or social oppression. The second poem I am going to compare “I know why the caged bird sings” with is called ” Ego Tipping” by Nikki Giovanni. The poem is about how a black woman comparing herself to the Gods. She is saying that no one is better than her and she controls everything. This is saying that if your black or white you should be as free and as equal as each other and that everyone on earth should have the same rights and opportunities.

In the first stanza she is writing about where she was born and how she grew up, she says “i was born in Congo” this could mean was bought up in Congo and was born there, Also the first three lines all Start with “I” this is very repetitive, Nikki Giovanni does this to tell the reader and give them a strong impression on things about her, “I walked to the Fertile Crescent and built the sphinx” this is referring to the slaves that built the sphinx, and how she is classed the same as them, and still they can make good things.

She says “I am bad”, this is short, blunt and effective. It gets the point across that not everyone likes her, and may have done something wrong before. “I sat on the throne, drinking nectar with Allah” this line is very Strong and meaningful, as she is classing herself high enough to drink nectar with a god, Nectar was a very expensive thing at the times when she wrote this poem so she is saying there is nothing she cannot have. I got hot and sent an ice age to Europe” this line shows that she is powerful and can do anything she wants, but selfish, as sending an ice age to Europe would kill millions of people, She is referring that she is controlling the earth and natural disasters. “The tears from my birth pains created the Nile”, she is now saying she is big and important she creates all the landmarks too.

The second short sentence in the poem is “I am beautiful” this sentence is straight to the point and it also shows that she is proud of herself and she thinks that she is a perfectionist, But however this can also means that she is ugly so she is trying to look better by saying she looks beautiful.

In the next stanza she is talking about how she created parts of the earth like she says “I gazed onto the forest and burned out the Sahara desert”. the time that the poem was written in religions was a big part of people’s lives they believe in god and now Nikki Giovanni is saying she is every god. n stanza five she mentions “My son Noah built an ark and I stood proudly at the helm’ this means that she has given birth to a man who saved the animals, She also says “My bowels deliver uranium” she is now boasting and saying that even her wastes everyone craves for and it is expensive. The last stanza Nikki Giovanni says “I am so perfect so divine so surreal. I cannot be comprehended without my permission. I mean I can fly, like a bird in the sky” she says this to tell the ready she is everywhere she is so perfect she cannot make mistakes.

The two poems that I have analysed are both very similar in topic but they have different view points towards it, “I know why the caged bird sings” is more sad and depressing, whereas “Ego Tripping” is more happy and joyful. The first poem shows how black people get treated badly and being discriminated and then the whites gets all the freedom. The second poem is opposite to the first one because she is saying she is god there is nothing she can’t do and she is a African American, This shows is feels free and unlike before they had no freedom.