`I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings` Poem Critique

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS

YOUR NAME COURSE NUMBER DUE DATE INSTRUCTOR NAME After a childhood full of cruelties , disappointments , and being raped at the hands of her mother 's boyfriend , Maya Angelou survived and became the most important civil , human , and Women 's Rights Activist . After her rape she was silent for 5 years , and only through the encouragement of her grandmother did she start to write and act . Her writings won her world acclaim and she was nominated for the National Book Award , a Tony

Award and a Pulitzer Prize . She is indisputably one of the most influential women in history . Her poem I know why the caged bird sings ' shows her grace and skill as a poet , and a humanitarian

I know why the caged bird sings ' is a six stanza poem . The poem has a very traditional structure . The first two stanzas are triplets followed by a quatrain , then another triplet , and ends with a quatrain It has a very simple but effective rhyme scheme . The triplet stanza has a AAB rhyme , and the quatrain stanzas have a AAAB rhyme

This poem is lyrical and intense . The themes presented in this poem are of a freedom and "triumph over adversity (Arensberg 273 . In stanza one Angelou describes how birds in the wild have unbound freedom She writes leaps on the back of the wind . dips his wings in the orange sunrays (lines 1-3 ' about the free birds activities . Her words affect the senses , and the reader feels the freedom the birds experience in flight . She brings nature and the outdoor elements to life and the audience is right there at play with the birds . Freedom abounds ! In stark contrast , the next stanza snaps the reader back from their dreamlike state . There are a series of very strong words that create a feeling of depression , and claustrophobia . Angelou explains the life of a caged bird . narrow cage , bars of rage , and wings clipped (lines 3-6 ' These phrases create a sense of dread and imprisonment . This evokes sympathy for the bird , and thoughts about if we were also imprisoned (Arensberg 280 . The reader begins to think what is life unfair and , why that bird ? and further , why me

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams (line 14 ' the poem continues and yet the bird still sings . Angelou comments The caged bird still sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still (lines 17-18 ' about the bird who displays the only freedom he has at present , his voice . Pierre Walker , in his 1995 article comments that the bird still dreams , and he has the determination to overcome and make the best of his situation

There is a single focus for Angelou use of alliteration in this poem She uses the s ' sound over and over again - his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream (line 15 . The s ' sound creates the feeling of wind , the whispering of tree leaves , the...