How does Maya Angelou use imagery to develop the Caged Bird theme?
Maya Angelou uses caged and free birds to symbolize the dream of attaining freedom. The poem illustrates the contrast between imprisonment and freedom through symbolism of a caged bird and a free bird and then between their dreams and desires.
What is the tone of the poem caged bird?
sorrowful
What does the Free Bird symbolize in Caged Bird?
In Maya Angelou’s poem a juxtaposition is provided of a free bird’s life with that of a caged bird. The free bird symbolizes people who live in this world unencumbered by prejudice of any type whether it be racial, socioeconomic, or psychological.
What is the theme of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings poem?
The poem describes the opposing experiences between two birds: one bird is able to live in nature as it pleases, while a different caged bird suffers in captivity. Due to its profound suffering, the caged bird sings, both to cope with its circumstances and to express its own longing for freedom.
How do you use imagery in a poem?
Poets create imagery by using figures of speech like simile (a direct comparison between two things); metaphor (comparison between two unrelated things that share common characteristics); personification (giving human attributes to nonhuman things); and onomatopoeia (a word that mimics the natural sound of a thing).
What is the definition imagery?
1a : pictures produced by an imaging system. b : the product of image makers : images also : the art of making images. 2 : figurative language. 3 : mental images especially : the products of imagination.
How does Maya Angelou use imagery?
In each stanza Angelou uses imagery first to show her confidence and then to state what parts of her body shows her confidence and inner strength. Angelou uses imagery to describe the narrator, It’s the fire in my eyes,/And the flash of my teeth,/ The swing in my waist,/And the joy in my feet.
What does symbolism mean in a poem?
Symbolism is a literary device that uses symbols, be they words, people, marks, locations, or abstract ideas to represent something beyond the literal meaning.
How the theme of freedom is developed in Caged Bird?
Oppression. In “Caged Bird,” Angelou uses the theme of oppression as a foil to the theme of freedom. In this way, the bird’s song is both a consequence and overcoming of his oppression. While he is not free to fly, his soul expresses the freedom he yearns for.
What is the symbolism of caged bird?
Angelou uses the metaphor of a bird struggling to escape its cage, described in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, as a prominent symbol throughout her series of autobiographies. Like elements within a prison narrative, the caged bird represents Angelou’s confinement resulting from racism and oppression.