Friday 3 May 2013

How does the poem "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou relate to journeys?

's
"" sets up a contrast between the titular bird and a "free bird." Each kind
of bird is described as taking a different sort of "journey," though the free bird's
flight is more explicitly linked to movement.

In the first stanza, the
speaker opens the poem by usingto describe the free bird's "journey":


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
and dares to claim the sky.

These lines illustrate the flight of the free bird, who can go anywhere he chooses.
He rides the wind and "dares to claim the sky." He feels ownership of his world and of
himself.
On the other hand, the caged bird, with
his "clipped" wings, is trapped and only

sings
with a fearful trill
of things
unknown
but longed for still

The only journey this bird can take is an imagined one, and even that is difficult,
since his life has been so limited as to make that kind of adventure "unknown."
Angelou continues this stanza,...



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