I know why the caged bird sings

Hello, my lovely readers!

Unfortunately we are still and now again strongly confronted with racism in our society, especially against our coloured fellow human beings. I feel the need to express my thoughts toward this subject. In this post I will do so by digging deeper into the subject behind Maya Angelou's poem 'Caged Bird'. For all of my readers who are not familiar with whom this lady is, she was an American author, poet, dancer, actress, singer and civil rights activist. Let's start by carefully reading her famous poem:

The free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wings

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings

with fearful trill

of the things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

 

 

Angelou's "Caged Bird" was first published in 1983. The poem is a metaphor illustrating the differences between African-American and Whites during the civil rights era. It is inspired by Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s turn of the century poem “Sympathy" published in 1899. The speaker of the poem (Sympathy) and the bird both experience the pain of captivity (Dunbar was the son of slaves). The bird longs to fly from its cage when it sees the sunlit landscape and smells the fragrance of the flowers. It flaps its wings until they bleed; it beats against the bars of the cage. The speaker also yearns to break free when nature tempts. He perhaps tugs at his bonds (literal or figurative) and beats his head against a wall. But neither the bird nor the speaker can escape. Both are prisoners. All they can do is sing a song that cries out to heaven for deliverance.  Angelou borrows Dunbar's “I know why the caged bird sings” and uses it as the foundation of her poem.

In the first and second line the speaker says, "The free bird leaps on the back of the wind..." where she/he is expressing that whites believed they were superior over other races due to prejudiced traditions in a segregated America. The first stanza illustrates how the free bird or white race is free to do what it wants: "....dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky...“provoking images in the reader's mind. With the metaphor of the free bird daring to claim the sky the speaker shows how whites demonstrated discrimination and prejudice towards blacks. In the second stanza the speaker describes the actions of the caged bird, or African-Americans. Because African-Americans were different and were thought as a subordinate, these lines illustrate the anger and frustration that they were forced to endure. The third stanza is repeated, which brings attention to the idea of the caged bird singing for freedom:

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill for the caged bird
sings of freedom

In the fourth stanza many choices of the free bird are shown. The free bird symbolises a free person able to make their own decisions in life and able to create their own future. On the other hand, the caged bird symbolises an oppressed person, unable to create their own future without pain and agony. The fifth stanza depicts the bird in its cage, the cage that has now become the grave of the bird’s dreams, and once again the caged bird sings of freedom.

Throughout history, barriers have been put up between races. Divisions and injustices between blacks and whites have existed since ancient times.  It's an enigma regarding how heritage has incurred blacks with slavery, and why discrimination and racism exist.  Nevertheless, the Civil Rights Movement, actions of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and other are examples of how blacks have slowly "sang" for equality. For more than three hundred years, a wrongful tradition of slavery and discrimination has existed. This ongoing black inferiority and white supremacy is bound in tradition and hard to dissociate. Through tradition and history whites have been given hopes and spirit; blacks are subservient 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.  Angelou turns her attention to the lives of black people in America from the time of slavery to the rebellious 1960s. Her themes deal broadly with the painful anguish suffered by blacks forced into submission, with guilt over accepting too much, and with protest and basic survival. Maya Angelou once said, “If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.” In a way, this really sums up the poem ‘Caged Bird’. In conclusion I would like to end with this quote. 

Thank you for reading and until next time. Cheers!

"Race is the great taboo in our society. We are afraid to talk about it. White folks fear their unspoken views will be deemed racist. People of colour are filled with sorrow and rage at unrighted wrongs. Drowning in silence, we are brothers and sisters drowning each other. Once we decide to transform ourselves from fearful caterpillars into courageous butterflies, we will be able to bridge the racial gulf and move forward together towards a bright and colourful future." -Eva Paterson