Does one know that Maya Angelou received two presidential medals? Angelou received both the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (Caged Bird Legacy). Angelou dropped out of school at the age of 14. Even without a full high school education, she went on to write 36 books and poems, 30 of them were best sellers. These are just a few of the examples of the amazing things Angelou did in her life and poetic career.
To begin with, Maya Angelou was an African American civil rights activist and poet. Maya was born on April 4th, 1928 in Stamps, Arkansas. ”As an African American child, Angelou experienced firsthand prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas”(Info from Biography.com). As a child she was also sexually …show more content…
She writes this to bring to light the problems African Americans are having in America, a country that was meant to have equality for each and every citizen. In the poem she describes a bird that is stuck in a cage and wants to be free but for one reason or another can’t. The poem uses sight and touch to convey the sense of oppression and the dreams the bird has of freedom. For instance, “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.” Maya uses many symbolic words for this poem for example, the cage represents bondage and slavery while the bird points towards people held captive in slavery. One paragraph is very symbolic, “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.” When she says the bird is standing on the grave of dreams she is trying to say that the bird has lost hope and have given up. This brings us to the theme of the poem which is people dreaming of the day when slavery and discrimination no longer exists. I like this poem because it was written for a legitimate reason and the symbolism behind the characters and their actions in the
To begin with, Maya Angelou was an African American civil rights activist and poet. Maya was born on April 4th, 1928 in Stamps, Arkansas. ”As an African American child, Angelou experienced firsthand prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas”(Info from Biography.com). As a child she was also sexually …show more content…
She writes this to bring to light the problems African Americans are having in America, a country that was meant to have equality for each and every citizen. In the poem she describes a bird that is stuck in a cage and wants to be free but for one reason or another can’t. The poem uses sight and touch to convey the sense of oppression and the dreams the bird has of freedom. For instance, “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.” Maya uses many symbolic words for this poem for example, the cage represents bondage and slavery while the bird points towards people held captive in slavery. One paragraph is very symbolic, “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.” When she says the bird is standing on the grave of dreams she is trying to say that the bird has lost hope and have given up. This brings us to the theme of the poem which is people dreaming of the day when slavery and discrimination no longer exists. I like this poem because it was written for a legitimate reason and the symbolism behind the characters and their actions in the