Summary of Caged Bird

The poem is divided into six stanzas. In the first stanza, Angelou describes a free bird leaping
in the wind, floating through the air until its wing appears to touch the rays of the sun. She
likens this to the bird ‘claiming’ the sky, like someone claiming a particular territory as their
possession.
The second stanza describes the caged bird, providing the poem with its title. This bird’s
horizons are far narrower than the free bird’s: he (Angelou describes the bird as male) has
been rendered almost blind by his anger at having his wings clipped so he cannot fly away.
His feet are tied together to limit his movement further. All he can do is sing – so he opens
his throat to do so.
The third stanza tells us what the caged bird’s song consists of. He sings in a frightened
manner, about things he doesn’t know or hasn’t experienced (such as freedom, we assume)
but which he longs to have. Although he is imprisoned in his cage, the bird’s song can travel
beyond the bars of his cage and be heard on a hill far away.
In the fourth stanza, Angelou returns to the free bird, who, she imagines, thinks of the
territory of the air and sky which he had claimed as his own in the opening stanza. This bird
also thinks of the worms waiting for him on a lawn somewhere, which he will be able to eat.
The fifth stanza once again contrasts this free bird’s existence with that of the caged bird.
The caged bird stands upon a grave which represents the death of dreams (for instance, of a
better life, such as that enjoyed by the free bird). The bird’s shadow is cast upon the wall
behind it where it stands in its caged, its feet tied and wings clipped, and it once again
prepares to sing.
The sixth and final stanza is a word-for-word repetition of the poem’s third stanza, in which
the caged bird sings in a frightened manner, about things he doesn’t know or hasn’t
experienced but which he longs to have. Although he is imprisoned in his cage, the bird’s
song can travel beyond the bars of his cage and be heard on a hill far away.
Character Details
The Free Bird
The free bird is the first bird the speaker mentions in the poem, and it appears in the first
and fourth stanzas. The first stanza describes the idyllic, carefree life he leads, doing all the
things a bird might enjoy—he “leaps / on the back of the wind,” “floats downstream / till
the current ends,” “dips his wing” in the rays of the sun, and, most significantly, “dares to
claim the sky” as his own. With this final phrase, Angelou may imply that this bird’s freedom
is thoughtless and therefore potentially dangerous. To boldly claim the entire sky as one’s
own is to deny that others have an equal right to move freely through a stretch of open air.
In his ignorant claim of ownership, the free bird calls to mind the legacies of colonialism and
enslavement that keep others “caged.”
the fourth stanza, the free bird dreams of “another breeze” and “trade winds,” phrases that
emphasize the free bird’s freedom of choice, travel, and opportunity and that suggest the
expansiveness of his life. He imagines the “fat worms waiting” for him and considers this
abundance of sustenance and pleasure to be freely available, his for the taking. The use of
the words “soft,” “sighing trees,” and “dawn bright lawn” further underscore the ease and
happiness of the free bird’s existence. And just as he “claimed the sky” in the first stanza,
the free bird now “names the sky his own”—a phrase which, even more so than “claims the
sky,” seems to allude to the imperialist practices of nations such as the United States and
Great Britain, which literally renamed the lands they took for their own as states and
colonies—and the peoples they subdued as subjects or slaves.
Having no masters or captors, the free bird is able to do whatever he desires—but the
nature of his freedom is called into question by the descriptions of the caged bird with
which it is juxtaposed. Moreover, the contrast between the free bird’s stanzas and the four
stanzas devoted to the caged bird heightens the sense of painful injustice attached to the
caged bird’s confinement. The plight of the caged bird is all the more distressing when
examined alongside the peace and freedom of the bird that isn’t caged. Ultimately, the
relationship between the two birds is left ambiguous. Is the free bird aware of the suffering
of his caged brother, who sings his pain to “the distant hill”?
The Caged Bird
The caged bird first appears in the poem’s second stanza; stanzas two, three, five, and six
are devoted to description of his plight. The caged bird’s experience couldn’t be more
different from that of the free bird described in the first stanza: he is imprisoned in a cage,
enraged by his captivity but unable to change his circumstances. Even if the door to the cage
were opened, the bird’s wings are “clipped”—meaning that his primary feathers have been
trimmed in order to render him incapable of flight—and his feet are “tied,” so he would be
unable to fly away. The caged bird has never known freedom, and song is the only avenue
available to the bird to help him express the anguish of his captivity and his yearning for
freedom. He sings of the freedoms the free bird enjoys, although he has never known them;
to him, they are “things unknown / but longed for still.” While the free bird “leaps / on the
back of the wind,” the caged bird “stalks / down his narrow cage.” From his cage, he can
“seldom see” the outside world, let alone physically take part in it. Instead, he takes part in
the world through his song of freedom, which reaches not only beyond the “bars of rage”
that imprison him but as far away as “the distant hill.”
In the fifth and penultimate stanza, the horror of the caged bird’s plight, and the anguish of
the caged bird himself, reaches a fever pitch. The bird is described as standing on “the grave
of dreams”—an image that connotes utter hopelessness—and “his shadow shouts on a
nightmare scream.” It is significant that it is not the caged bird himself but his “shadow”
who “shouts” in response to his nightmarish situation. While the bird’s subconscious
impulse may be to scream in agony, this is not what he ultimately chooses to do. Instead, he
sings, and though his song may be “fearful,” it is also hopeful, as he sings not of
imprisonment but of freedom. In this way, the caged bird may be considered symbolic of all
those who use art to transcend their unjust circumstances and deliver a message that
reaches far beyond the real or metaphorical walls that imprison them.