What was Maya Angelo's poem called "I know why the caged bird sings" is about?

Question

Maya Angelou born1928 has had a great variety of experiences: she toured twenty-two nations as a dancer, worked on a newspaper in Egypt, lectured at the University of Ghana in western Africa, and directed a film in hollywood. She has written poetry,fiction, and plays.Born Maguerite Johnson,Angelou and her brother Bailey, were raised by their grandmother Annie Henderson(whom they called Momma) the owner of a general store in the black area of Stamps, Arkansas. The following excerpt from her autobiography covers the time when Marguerite is about ten years old. Unusually bright but painfully self-conscious, she has become withdrawn and refuses to speak to anyone.

Answer 1

Hooray C.J.!!!

"I Know Why the Caged bird Sings" is Ms. Maya Angelou's autobiography. She took the title from Mr. Paul Lawrence Dunbar's poem "Sympathy."

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Sympathy

I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals —
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting —
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he 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!

"Sympathy" was originally published in "Lyrics of the Hearthside" by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1899. This poem has passed out of copyright and can be found on the Gutenberg website.

Answer 2

Maya Angelou didn't write a poem called "I know why the caged bird sings", but, an autobiographical novel, detailing her painful childhood, which included rape, abandonment, and racism. A sad, but excellent read. Paul Lawrence Dunbar wrote a poem called "Sympathy" that talks about a caged bird singing.

Answer 3

She wrote a memoir titled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, not a poem. It's, as you stated above, about her young life. Everything from religion to punishments to a young pregnancy.

Answer 4

the poem is about living the life you're in, singing right out loud, no matter whether you will be ever be free. the free bird may not ever have the depth of character of the caged bird. the caged bird may better understand and appreciate the gift of freedom that the free bird takes for granted.