Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Maya angelou poem analysis
Maya angelou poem analysis
Maya angelou poetry analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Maya angelou poem analysis
Still, I had questions, questions which hindered the progression of my final project. The questions that kept playing over and over in my mind were how do I express my passion for the words expressed in the chosen art form of my favorite poems? How do I communicate my thoughts to be consistent with the required framework? My immediate reaction was to give up, give in to my weariness, give in to my frustration and just quit. The problem with quitting is that I abhor quitting on any level. Quitting for me would lead to anxiety and even more frustration. Then I had an epiphany and realized that all my selections were about a mindset. A mindset consisting of an active mental state of transcending—refining and redefining processes or surrendering—a …show more content…
Angelou’s poem is encompassed in a metaphor of mental, emotional and spiritual transcendence. [“leaps on the back of the wind…bars of rage…thinks of another breeze”]. I believe the subject of the poem, a bird, is synonymous with a gender-neutral use of the pronoun his. The speaker uses "his" throughout the writing. The comparison and contrast of mental states are presented in the personification of a “Free bird” and a “Caged bird.” The author’s use of free verse is provisioned to present a descriptive analysis of two mental paths, without the limitation or need to follow a regular scheme. The path of an active mindset relates to the ability to always refine or redefine choices. A closed mind, the other path, is related to the stagnation in life choices which are bound by anger, frustration and an inability to progress. The two paths of vivid imagery speak to the overall contentious behavior during a volatile period of drastic change. The “Free bird” in the first stanza is visualized as a bird flying, unencumbered. [paraphrased: an active mind moves quickly on the surface of force or influence. Gracefully moving in the direction of an opportunity until the continuous movement (force or influence) ends. Then having gained experience as a highly valued asset, with character and courage one captures the attention of the force or influence to excel beyond that which was deemed …show more content…
The poem opens with iambic pentameter but the metrical foot consistently changes after the first line. Angelou uses six stanzas written in five quatrains and one tercet. The poet uses enjambment consistently to expand upon the vivid description between the two birds. The speaker projects the ostentatiousness of the human mind by using alternate end rhyme (downstream/wing and trill/still/hill) and slant rhyme (his wings are clipped... opens his throat to sing). The last two lines of the 2nd stanza (couplet) and the entire 3rd stanza is repeated in the 5th and 6th verses to amplify the significance of the perils of a closed mind, a mental state filled with darkness. The poem provides insight into the direct relationship of using choice to transcend (“free bird”) and excel to unlimited possibilities (“the sky”) versus using a choice which mentally stagnates (cages the mind) and results in mental strain (“his tune is heard on the distant hill…sings of freedom”). The outstanding aspect of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is the exceptional use of personification. The author’s personification of a bird (wild/free vs captivity) to compare and contrast to the cognitive operation of the human mind is provocative, compelling me to reflect, daily, on my life
Dunbar finishes off the poem with powerful lines: “But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea that upward heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings!” The caged bird is depicted as battered, bruised, and beaten from his violent rebellion— praying as his last chance of freedom. The bird’s belief in its virtuous rebellion justifies the revolt, as we see the bird’s constant persistency, even as the mutiny is demoted to
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
While reading "Courage Courses through Maya Angelou's story; Writer and activist agrees social problems persist" by Fish Griwkowsky. Maya Angelou is a very strong individual, not physically but mentally. Her life struggles and the strength she was able to maintain through those devilish times of her life made her the successful person she is now. She worked hard enough to become an iconic writer, poet, even in front of major films as an actor/filmmaker. Only hard work and dedication can get people where they want to be in life. Maya Angelou took risks and sacrifice, those hard times she went through gave her the strength to be successful. (Griwkowsky)
Maya Angelou's writing career began during the late 1950's, around the same period when the Civil Rights Movement began to take place. Maya's known for one f her most famous poems, I Know Why The Cage Birds Sing. This poem is basically talking about how the birds in the cage are the African Americans/Blacks, where they have no freedom. "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."(Angelou, 1-3) In the beginning , of this poem Maya Angelou is using the free bird to refer to the white people because they have all the rights and the blacks are stuck in "the cage" with no rights or freedom. Also, she could have a more positive aspect meaning that the free bird is the Black American dream coming to reality. After, being in ...
Marguerite Ann Johnson more commonly known today as “Maya Angelou is an American author and poet” (absolute astronomy, web). She was a key component in the civil rights movement and worked alongside figureheads Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. In the course of her lifetime she has held several different occupations some of which being a “poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Angelou has received over 50 honorary degress, and is a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University.” (Maya Angelou official website) In 1969 one of Angelou’s most notable works I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published. This semi biographical work caused her to gain fame “as a spokesperson for the black community and more specifically black women.” (starglimpse, web)
The passage “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is a very powerful passage. It illustrates feeling trapped or imprisoned very well. I like how well the writer shows that the bird did not have a choice of being trapped. Maya angelou states in the passage “his wings are clipped and his feet are tied” which shows he was forced to be kept in the cage. The passage
Albeit the verbalizer doesn't mention any races or ethnicity, it is pellucid that she is exhibiting how the freedoms allotted whites are diametrically opposed to those given to the Africans Americans. In the first stanza, the verbalizer illustrates how the free bird, or white race, is untroubled. It withal shows how the white race has the audacity to own and govern society inequitably. The speaker concludes'' (the free bird) dares to claim the sky". This shows how anglos demonstrated discrimination and prejudice toward blacks. Haplessly, this deplorable conduct was condoned in
The book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the 1969 autobiography about the early years of writer and poet Maya Angelou. It is the first of six volumes about Maya’s life and the hardships she faced growing up and even in adulthood. This book covers the years from the early 1930's, up until about 1970. Out of the six, it is probably the most popular and critically acclaimed volume, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of personality and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma. All of her volumes center around the themes of family, self-discovery, and motherhood, though in expressions of writing fashion and plot each of the books are different. At the beginning of the book abandoned by their parents, three-year-old Maya and her older brother, Bailey, are sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, and as the book ends Maya becomes a mother at the age of 17. Throughout the course of the book, lessons are taught and learned and Maya is totally changed from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-confident, distinguished young woman competent of responding to discrimination.
Walker, Pierre A. Racial protest, identity, words, and form in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Vol. 22. West Chester: Collage Literature, n.d. Literary Reference Center. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
He is almost sleeping while doing this. This creates a very powerful visual image. It epitomizes how the people left to grieve act. Many people stricken by death want to be left alone and bottle themselves up. The first few lines of the poem illustrate how deeply in sorrow the man is. This image should affect everyone. It should make the reader sympathize or even empathize with the man. Another main way he uses imagery is through the black bird or the raven. The presence of the bird is a bad omen. It is supposed to be followed by maleficent things. The bird is used to symbolize death figuratively and literally. The bird only says one word the entire poem. It repeats “nevermore.” This word can be interpreted multiple ways each time it is said. It is also possible that the bird is not talking. It is possible that the bird is an image created by
The book thus explores a lot of important issues, such as: sexuality and race relations, and shows us how society violated her as a young African American female. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou clearly expresses the physical pain of sexual assault, the mental anguish of not daring to tell, and her guilt and shame for having been raped. Her timidity and fear of telling magnify the brutality of the rape. For more than a year after the rape she lives in self-imposed silence, speaking only very rarely. This childhood rape reveals the pain that African American women suffered as victims not only of racism but also sexism.
bird as the metaphor of the poem to get the message of the poem across
Thesis: Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” reveals a disturbing truth about freedom and oppression. Despite being constantly told by society that they are of little value, oppressed people are able to overcome hardships in life in order to strengthen
“...I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,- When he beats his bars and would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings- I know why the caged bird sings!” ―Paul Laurence Dunbar” like how birds are caged they were not given the freedom like how a black man is longing for freedom in a racist white society. He starts off describing the pure and good of this universe the nature of our sun and the grass that waves in the wind and the river that flows, but he is that bird in that cage viewing the world but not experiencing the good parts, because he was taken that freedom and looked upon as an animal. As the poem goes on its his own pain suffering and trapped from what he longs for, he beats his wings he wishes so badly to be free the way a bird would feel locked up. As he beats the bars mad hating life left with bruises, he sings to the heavens getting his joy and glee. His prayers and seeing a view of the universe that no white man could at the time. that keeps him humble to understand the little things that aren't so little after all. He knows the feeling of the bird in that cage who sings because he is that black man in society who prays. Paul Laurence Dunbar is remembered for his Writing career, Works of poetry and Legacy and honors.
In the “Caged Bird” Angelou’s comparison to the caged bird was African-Americans in the society they were living in. She symbolized the bird with African-Americans experiences. In the second stanza the poem states “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”. This is comparison to African-Americans in their society. When African- Americans were enslaved they use to sing songs to uplift their spirits because that’s all they could do. They were physically bound and mentally brain-washed. The songs was there way of showing they still had fight left in them. In the fourth stanza it states “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”. This is saying the while African-Americans were enslaved and oppressed they watched Caucasians be free and do as they pleased. Although at the time African-Americans never experienced freedom they yearned for it. They knew it had to be better then what they were enduring. Racism is considered the cage around the caged bird, and it means not getting treated fairly with jobs, medical treatment, and even get