Treasure Trove I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Line 8 to 14 Poem by Mary Angelou

Treasure Trove I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Line 8 to 14 Poem by Mary Angelou (Stanza-2)

Question:– Read the following extract from the poem ‘ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings ’ by Mary Angelou and answer the questions that follow:

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.

Question 1 Explain with reference to the context.

Reference :  These lines are taken from the poem, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ written by Mary Angelou.

Context:  The theme of the poem  is the suffering of African- Americans and the contrast of slavery versus freedom. Maya Angelou’s 1983 poem “Caged Bird” compares the plight of a caged bird to the flight of a free bird. Many readers have interpreted Angelou’s poem as an extended metaphor with the caged bird representing the historical struggles of African Americans.

Explanation: 

This stanza is in stark contrast with the first. By using the word “but” to begin this stanza, the speaker prepares the reader for this contrast. Then she describes the “bird that stalks his narrow cage”. The tone is immediately and drastically changed from peaceful, satisfied, and joyful to one that is dark, unnerving, and even frustrating. She describes that this caged first “can seldom see through his bars of rage”. While the free bird gets to enjoy the full sky, the caged bird rarely even gets a glimpse of the sky.

She claims that “his wings are clipped and his feet are tied”. Text from her autobiography reveals that Angelou often felt this way in life. She felt restricted from enjoying the freedom that should have been her right as a human being. The speaker then reveals that these are the very reasons that the bird “opens his throat to sing”. The author felt this way in her own life. She wrote and sang and danced because it was her way of expressing her longing for freedom.

Question 2 What docs the word “clipped” mean in this poem?

Answer : Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird” is full of avian metaphors and imagery. The poem itself is a metaphor for the limitations one experiences in a life of oppression. “Caged Bird”. draws from Angelou’s own experiences as a Black woman in the racially-segregated United States following the Civil War and even beyond the Civil Rights Movement.

To this day, many Black Americans face limitations based on a systemic cycle of racial oppression which prevents class mobility. In talking of birds, “clipping” involves trimming a bird’s wing feathers so that they cannot fly.

Some bird owners or caretakers trim just one wing or enough feathers on each side, so as to render the bird unstable in flight but leaving them able to glide for a short distance. In Angelou’s poem the bird longs for freedom but is restricted as not only is it caged but its wings are also clipped.

Question 3 Why does the caged bird sing?

Answer: The caged bird sings because it is the only way it knows to express itself.

Question 5 Why do you think the cage is “narrow”? What is meant by “his bars of rage”?

Question 6 Why does a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bar of rage?

–: End of Treasure Trove I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Line 8 to 14 Poem by Mary Angelou (Stanza-2) :–

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