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CAGED BIRD
By: Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
int he orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky!.

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!.

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom!.

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!.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing!.

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom!.


A CAGED BIRD can be interpreted as the black race being held back from freedom by their skin color!.

METAPHORS:
"caged bird"~the black race retaining the disadvantaging skin color, lack of freedom

"free bird"~the white race retaining freedom, aversion toward blacks

"wind"~ white tradition in history, white race superior to black

"breeze"~hope, opportunity

"fat worms"~opportunity

"wings are clipped and his feet are tied"~what has gone down through tradition, disadvantages of blacks seldom due to their skin color

"The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom!."

The quotation above is a significant stanza of the poem, CAGED BIRD!. The stanza explicitly displays the true meaning of the poem and defines actions of a "caged bird!." Blackness of skin acts as a barrier for the black race; it prevents freedom for a person!. The freedom, and feelings of a white person's existence are unknown to one who is black!. Here, Maya's belief for freedom and equality is beginning to spread among the black race!. She "sings" for freedom!.

Throughout history, barriers have been put up between races!. Divisions and inequities between blacks and whites have existed since ancient times!. It's an enigma regarding how heritage has incurred blacks with slavery, and why discrimination and racism exist!. Nevertheless, the Civil Rights Movement, actions of Martin Luther King Jr!., Rosa Parks, and the trials of Brown vs!. The Board of Education of Topeka, and Plessy vs!. Ferguson (Separate but Equal, 1896) are examples of how blacks have slowly "sang" for equality!. For more than three hundred years, a wrongful tradition of slavery and discrimination has existed!. This ongoing black inferiority and white supremacy (ethnocentrism) is bound in tradition and hard to sever!. Blacks are slowly overcoming the dominance of whites to
blacks!.

Through tradition and history, whites have been given hopes and spirit; blacks are servile and bound by tradition!. This controversy is condoned and accepted!. Tradition has caused the death of black dreams and hope!. If a black person existed retaining the same amount of knowledge, skill, and talent of a white person, who would succeed more in life!? The poem infers that the probable answer would be a white person, because blacks are "caged" by their color!. Opportunities infinitely exist for whites, whereas the same is false for blacks!.

There are several poems about identity by Maya Angelou, also!.
"In past society African American women have centered themselves as targets unwillingly through hardships of abused slavery!. However, in the world today as Maya Angelou describes in her poem ,“Still I Rise”, women have rose from the grown they were thrown to!. Maya Angelou’s poem Revolves around the theme of independence and rising when fallen!. Angelou uses metaphors and similes and well as other literary devices to help the reader understand the struggle she reflects on from anger and pain!. The title implies that Angelou has the ability to rise above anything that evokes to her down!.
In the first stanza Maya Angelou uses metaphors to describe the evil thoughts that people have against her and how she overcome them!. Angelou, the speaker, starts out saying “ you write me down in history” and “ bitter, twisted lies” representing that textbooks sometime never hold all truth of history and that certain things are left out for the sake of children!.
Unremarkable, there is a sense of lies and silent discriminations that border African Americans that are not mentioned in the scripts of history!. Maya immediately makes the reader think twisted of history lessons that have been lectured over they year!. Thus, reviling hundreds of blacks who
had to be killed throughout wars and misfortunes!. Through a simile ,“ but still, like dust, I’ll rise”, Maya displays how her ancestors were put down, forced to be slaves, but however she has carries herself as a strong women indicating that although past history has been devastating the spirit in her will triumph!.
In the second, fourth ,fifth , and seventh stanzas Maya uses different questions to analyze her thoughts!. In these questions Maya acknowledges her good qualities as well as those she is not too in favor of, and she turns them into positive ones, because it is just she, and no one can change her way of being!. These questions are spilled out to those who apparently can be targeted at a husband, betrayed friend, or even the enemies of the past!.
The technique of asking questions is a way that Angelou pulls the reader into the poem!. With this tactic in mind the reader is obligated to examine Maya and also their own opinions!.
In the first ,third, and sixth stanzas Maya doesn’t question the reader but however the stanzas end with the phrase “I’ll rise”!. The alteration of questions and the confident phrase “I’ll rise” lets the reader know that the questions are open minded and that it is the job of the reader to fill them in!. In the third stanza Maya uses literary devices to help the reader understand her thoughts!. Similes in the third stanza describe her inner self!. “ Just like moons and like suns” and “just like hopes springing high” show how she is an equal to all and all that surround her!. In the sixth stanza her sexual appeal is reference through a simile, “I dance like I’ve got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs”, demonstrates a sign of natural sense of pleasure!.
In the rhyming of the poem each stanza except the last two follow a constant pattern of ABCB DEFE GHIH!. With the last two stanza their format of claim changes!. Angelou begins to emphasize the rising the title implies, instead of talking to the reader!. In the last two stanzas Angelou mentions “ rooted in pain” reference of the issue of slavery!. Instead of these
troubles hanging on her shoulders, “shoulders falling down like teardrops” (simile references in the 4th stanza), she brings about the strength her ancestors gave her, “gifts that my ancestors gave”, to encourage her own spirit!. “ I am the dream and the hope of the slave”, Maya makes reference
to the last stanza that she is obligated as an descendant from them to carry out their dreams for an opportunity to succeed as a African American in the free world!. Maya creates and poem as a voice for all people, and not just her own individual story!."

Here's a site on people's analysis of STILL I RISE!.
http://www!.americanpoems!.com/poets/Maya_!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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I don't know about race, but heres a good for for idenity by Emily Dickinson called "I am nobody":

I'm nobody! Who are you!?
Are you nobody too!?
Then there's a pair of us- don't tell
They'd banish us, you know!.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!Www@QuestionHome@Com

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