Maya Angelou's Ode to Freedom in "Caged Bird"

“Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou is a free verse poem in which she represents gender discrimination, and racism as the caged bird who sings as his way to experiment freedom, while the free bird “and dips his wings / in the orange sun rays / and dares to claim the sky” (Angelou, 5-7). In this poem, she makes an ode to freedom when she describes how careless and untied the free bird is, being able to go as far as his ambition demands him. She shows how freedom is so foremost in our lives and what a precious thing it is for those who can claim it. While others who don’t have it, dare to open their mouth and sing for the so hoped freedom, the privilege they lack from.

Works Cited

Angelou, Maya. “Caged Bird by Maya Angelou.” Poetry Foundation, 1983, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48989/caged-bird.