Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

The Poem “Caged Bird”, by Maya Angelou, is about how people who keep their opinions

to themselves, and don't try to do the best for themselves will get nothing out of life but, the

people who strive for doing better and say what they think and how they feel will get the best

that life has to offer for them. It is a very descriptive poem for many people how Angelou

describes the free and caged birds. The theme of this poem is if you use your voice you will be

heard. “Caged Bird” is a very meaningful and understanding poem because of imagery,

sound devices and figurative language.

        In the poem, “Caged Bird”, Maya Angelou has a lot of imagery throughout the

whole poem letting the reader have a clear picture of what is going on. One example of when

this element is shown, is “A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the

current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays”. This example helps the reader see a

picture of the free bird, enjoying life and making the most of it. The descriptive words such as

dips, floats, and leaps helps the reader make sense of the stanza. Another example of imagery in

this poem is in the second stanza, “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”. This example is important

because it shows the difference of the free bird and the caged bird. Using the words such as

narrow, bars, clipped, and tied the reader can get a strong idea of the caged bird, compared to the

free bird. Also another example of imagery is when the author mentions the free bird again,

“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”. This example again shows the difference of the

free bird compared to the caged bird, but it shows this by using different techniques. Before,

when the caged bird is mentioned, the reader feels the pain of the caged bird. Although, in

lines 22-25, we read about the free bird again and we feel comfortable and happy. Maya

Angelou uses words such as breeze, sighing trees, and dawn-bright so we feel joyful and may

even picture ourselves as that free bird for a second. Along with sight, sound also used

throughout the poem. An example of sound in this poem is in lines 15-20, “The caged bird

sings with a fearful trill of things unknown and longed for still and his tune is heard on the

distant hill”. From this detail, the reader can feel the pain of the bird and can imagine the way

the caged bird sings. Many words in these lines give the reader a picture of how the bird sounds

singing, such as fearful, trill, and tune is heard on a distant hill. These words give a hint to the

reader that the song that the caged bird is singing is screechy but still it can be heard. These

examples show you how the writer creates an image in your mind while you read the poem. The

reader enjoys the poem more with imagery because they get to choose what the bird sounds like

and what the author means when she says something like, “dips his wings in orange sun rays”.

Using imagery in a poem is an important technique because it helps the writer express what they

want to say, and it lets the