1. Presentation by Delia Grantham, Mubarak, and Bianca Gutter
Maya Angelou
Presentation by Delia Grantham, Mubarak, and Bianca Gutter

2. About The Poem The poem has a rhyme scheme.
Poem is an extended metaphor for slavery/ inequality or can be interpreted as different personalities.
Theme is hope for a better future.

3. Literary Devices –Personification Rhyme Imagery Mood: somber/hopeful
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.
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.
Literary Devices
–Personification
Rhyme
Imagery
Mood: somber/hopeful
Diction: uses lots of imagery and descriptive phrases

4. Literary Devices Rhyme Shift in rhyme scheme Alliteration
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own
Literary Devices
Rhyme
Shift in rhyme scheme
Alliteration
Each stanza is one sentence.

5. Literary Devices Rhyme Shift in rhyme scheme
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Literary Devices
Rhyme
Shift in rhyme scheme
3rd and 6th stanza are repeated
Personification

6. About the Author She was Born April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri
She was a writer and a civil rights activist.
She won two NAACP Image Awards in 2005 and 2009.
After experiencing a tragic event in her childhood, Angelou became mute for many years.
She later began speaking and working again and became the first black female cable car conductor.
She wrote a biography in 1969 called I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and it was very successful.
Angelou died on May 28, 2014 (Maya Angelou Biography).

7. “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in this world, but has not solved one yet.”
–Maya Angelou

8. Works Cited
“Maya Angelou Biography.” The Biography.Com website, A&E Television Networks, 6 Feb. 2015, Accessed 28 Feb