Caged Bird" was published in Maya Angelou's 1983 poetry collection Shaker, Why Don't You

Sing? The poem describes the opposing experiences between two birds: one bird is able to live in

nature as it pleases, while a different caged bird suffers in captivity. The latter bird sings both to

cope with its circumstances and to express its own longing for freedom. Using the extended

metaphor of these two birds, Angelou paints a critical portrait of oppression in which she

illuminates the privilege and entitlement of the un-oppressed, and conveys the simultaneous

experience of suffering and emotional resilience. In particular, the poem's extended metaphor can

be seen as portraying the experience of being a Black person in America.

“Caged Bird” Summary

A free bird flies on the wind, as if floating downstream until the wind current shifts, and the bird

dips its wings in the orange sunlight, and he dares to call the sky his own.

But a bird that moves angrily and silently in a small cage can barely see through either the cage

bars or his own anger His wings are cut so he cannot fly and his feet are tied together, so he opens

his throat to sing.The caged bird sings fearfully of things he does not know, but still wants, and his

song can be heard from as far away as distant hills, because the caged bird sings about

freedom.The free bird thinks about another breeze, and about the global winds that blow from east

to west and make the trees sound as if they are sighing, and he thinks of the fat worms waiting to

be eaten on the lawn in the early morning light, and he says he owns the sky.But a caged bird

stands on the grave of his own dead dreams, and his dream-self screams from the nightmares he

has. His wings are trimmed down and his feet are tied, so he opens his throat to sing.The caged

bird sings fearfully of things he does not know, but still wants, and his song can be heard from as

far away as distant hills, because the caged bird sings about freedom.

 “Caged Bird” Themes

Oppression and the African-American Experience

The poem describes a "caged bird"—a bird that is trapped in a “narrow cage” with limited mobility,

only able to sing about the freedom it has never had and cannot attain. This caged bird is

an extended metaphor for the Black community's past and ongoing experience of racism in the
United States in particular, and can also be read as portraying the experience of any oppressed

group. The metaphor captures the overwhelming agony and cruelty of the oppression of

marginalized communities by relating it to the emotional suffering of the caged bird.

The poem uses the metaphor of the bird to capture not just the way that oppression imposes overt

physical limitations on the oppressed, but also the way that those limitations emotionally and

psychologically impact the oppressed. For instance, in lines 10-11 the poem states that the caged

bird "can seldom see through his bars," which seems at first as if the poem is going to explain how

being in the cage limits the bird's line of sight. But instead, the poem further describes the bars as

being "bars of rage"—the bird is imprisoned and certainly the physical bars of the cage limit its line

of sight, but the bird can "seldom see" because these conditions make the bird blind with rage. By

fusing the limits imposed by the cage with the emotional impact those limits inspire, the poem

makes clear that the environment and the anger can't be separated from one another. The

oppression of the cage doesn’t just keep the bird captive; the captivity changes the bird, and in so

doing robs the bird of its very self.As an extended metaphor used to convey the pain of the

oppression faced by Black people throughout (and before) the history of the United States, aspects

of the poem can be read as directly related to that particular experience. For instance, the caged

bird's song can be seen as an allusion to Black spirituals. As abolitionist Frederick Douglass once

said, “Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy." Additionally, Angelou’s image of the “caged

bird” is one borrowed from a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy,” which states, “I know

why the caged bird sings, ah me […] / it is not a carol of joy or glee [...]” What both Dunbar and

Douglass are saying is that the oppressed sing not because they are happy, but because they

are unhappy. The cause of the caged bird’s song explicitly mirrors Douglass and Dunbar's insights:

though the song is full of the hope of freedom, the fact that the caged bird can only hope of

freedom makes clear that it lacks that freedom. The song may be full of hope, but it is born from a

place of deep pain, and the hope can be seen as primarily an attempt to cope with an intolerable

situation.The poem's point about the bird's song springing from sadness is critically important,

because, historically, many defenders of slavery and other forms of oppression argued that the

song and dance that was a part of Black American culture indicated that Black people were in fact

joyful and content with their situation. The idea that such music might be an expression of cultural

or emotional pain was ignored (in large part because ignoring it meant that those who benefitted
from such oppression could also justify the oppression as not being oppressive at all)."Caged Bird"

actively and explicitly disputes the notion that the musical expression of an oppressed group is a

sign of contentment. It is instead an assertion that the opposite is true. In making such an

assertion, the poem refuses to bend to the convenient and racist interpretation of African-American

song by white oppressors and instead asserts that the anguish forced on Black communities by

white oppression must be acknowledged.

Where this theme appears in the poem:

 Lines 8-14

 Lines 15-22

 Lines 27-38
o

Freedom vs. Captivity

The poem “Caged Bird” compares and contrasts the experience of a free bird with that of a bird

held in captivity. While part of this contrast is meant to convey the injustice forced upon the

captive bird, the comparison also allows the poem to explore how a free being thinks and acts, and

to argue that freedom is a natural state for living beings. As an extended metaphor for the

historical oppression of Black people in the United States, the idea that freedom is a human’s

natural state of existence further demonstrates the cruelty and injustice of racism. The caged

bird’s longing for freedom also demonstrates the Black community's resilience against this

oppression.The poem's first key insight about freedom pertains to what a free being is allowed to

think about. Putting that more concretely: because the free bird is, well, free, it never has to think

about its own freedom. Instead, the free bird spends its time living, and doing what it wants. When

the free bird thinks, it is only of “another breeze” or “fat worms.” Thus, for the free bird, freedom is

natural, subconscious. The free bird never has to think about freedom. It simply is free.It is also

worth noting the ways in which freedom gives the free bird a sense of entitlement: the speaker

notes in line 7 that the free bird “dares to claim the sky,” as its own, and repeats this sentiment

later in line 26. Despite all the freedom the bird already has, it continues to seek more from the

world—it sees its freedom as naturally implying that it should “own” the world. It is difficult not to

see this insight as referring more broadly to the way that free people, such as slaveholders in the
American pre-Civil War South, saw their own freedom—and the lack of freedom of the Black people

they owned—as indicating that their ownership of their slaves was how things should be. They saw

their freedom, rather than a privilege or a natural right, as a signal that they should own

everything else. The caged bird, on the other hand, because it lacks freedom, spends all of its time

thinking and singing about freedom. Much like breathing, freedom is experienced as something

that is only thought of when it is no longer there. When one can breathe freely, there is no need to

think about it—however, when one can’t breathe, of course, it becomes the only thing one can

think of. In this way, the poem makes clear the emotional and even intellectual exhaustion that

comes from a lack of freedom, the way it creates a prison not just for a physical body but also for

the mind.The caged bird, unlike the free bird, is completely immobilized—not only is the bird held

captive in a cage, but its wings are clipped and its feet tied; thus, even if the bird were to escape

his cage, he would still be unable to move or fly. The total immobilization of the caged bird is likely

representative of the layers of discrimination a marginalized person can face, from overt and

official policies of slavery and discrimination, to racially-motivated violence, to being written out of

history or culture. The caged bird, being tied and clipped, seems to represent the ways oppression

not only imprisons individuals and communities, but also how it seeks to limit them in ways that

can then be used to justify their imprisonment: for instance, a bird with clipped wings and bound

feet couldn’t possibly survive outside a cage, so the person who put it there can then justify

keeping the bird in the cage to keep it safe. The imprisonment of the bird becomes self-

perpetuating, and conveniently (for the one keeping the bird caged) self-justifying.In a similar vein,

the immobilization of the bird could also be read as demonstrating just how overwhelming and

cruel oppression can be. A bird that is already caged does not need to also have its wings clipped

or its feet tied—in this poem, the bird is subjected to all three. The poem, then, serves as a

nuanced and damning portrait of all forms of racism and discrimination, and in particular of the

racism and oppression perpetrated by the United States against Black people.

Where this theme appears in the poem:

Lines 1-38

Freedom as a Universal and Natural Right

the desire for freedom is an organic, universal impulse that cannot be bound or destroyed. The

poem states that the caged bird sings “of things unknown / but longed for still.” The speaker then

clarifies: “the caged bird / sings of freedom.” Because freedom is a thing “unknown” to the caged

bird, the implication is that the caged bird was not taken from his natural environment, but rather

was likely born in his cage and has never known anything else. The caged bird has never known

freedom but still understands what freedom is, and yearns for it. That the understanding of

freedom seems to be universal suggests that freedom is the natural state of living things.Given

that the caged bird in the poem is an extended metaphor for the historic struggle of the Black

community under historical and ongoing racist oppression, the idea that freedom is a biological

impulse argues against the inhumane cruelty of oppression. The metaphor also demonstrates the

resilience of the black community. Because of the omnipresence of racism throughout the United

States history, the poem implies, Black people—like the caged bird—have never experienced true

freedom, at least not in the same way that those who are not forced to endure systemic oppression

do. That they nonetheless continue longing for this “thing unknown” illustrates that, despite the

hopelessness that the metaphor of the caged bird conveys, the Black community’s desire for

freedom, and determination to achieve it, remains.The repetition of the entire third stanza—which

also appears, word for word, as the poem’s sixth stanza—further demonstrates the resilience of the

black community. In the third stanza, the speaker tells the reader that the caged bird “sings with a

fearful trill / of things unknown / but longed for still / and his tune is heard / on the distant hill”

which demonstrates that, despite the hopelessness of the situation, the bird continues to sing

loudly enough that he is heard from far away, inspiring others. The repetition of the stanza as the

sixth and final stanza of the poem conveys that the caged bird does not simply give up, but rather

will continue to sing for freedom— thus, this repetition seems to suggest that even as Black

Americans endure its intolerable circumstances, it will continue to yearn and work for freedom.

Where this theme appears in the poem:

Lines 15-22

lines 1-7
A free bird ...

... claim the sky.

The first four lines of "Caged Bird" focus on the life of a "free bird"—that is, one that doesn't live in

a cage. The free bird is able to "leap / on the back of the wind" and simply float "downstream"

without a destination in mind, continuing "till the current ends." These actions demonstrate its

easy-going, carefree lifestyle.The first stanza as a whole also introduces the free-flowing nature of

the poem, which lacks a concrete rhyme scheme. This technique reflects the lack of restrictions

faced by the free bird. At the same time, the combined use of assonance and consonance allows

sounds to flow into one another, further contributing to this bird's sense of unrestricted ease. Note

the many /b/, /w/, and /d/ sounds that dominate the stanza, in words like "bird," "back," "wind,"

"wing," "dips," and "dares."This free bird is not only able to go wherever it pleases, but its sense of

freedom also makes it feel powerful: it "dares to claim the sky." Here, the speaker complicates the

previous graceful imagery of the bird by introducing this subtle notion that the free bird believes

its freedom gives it permission to claim ownership over something that does not belong to it. This

idea (which is repeated later in the poem) is likely an allusion to white colonialism and the

American concept of Manifest Destiny, in which white European and American colonizers felt free

to take control over land that belonged to others.This allusion also begins to demonstrate that this

poem is an extended metaphor for the oppression faced by marginalized communities (most

specifically, by Black people in the United States). The experiences of the free bird are

later juxtaposed against those of the caged bird, thus implying that the free bird is a symbol of

the privileges afforded to a dominant social group.