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Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The title of “Caged Bird” clearly connects the poem to Angelou’s famous memoir from 1969. In her memoir, Angelou describes how her love of language blossomed in the traumatic aftermath of sexual violence she suffered at the age of seven. Though the subject matter of “Caged Bird” is much less concrete and specific in terms of its subject, it nonetheless resonates with the memoir’s theme of hope in the face of oppressive circumstances.

Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”

Though more focused on hope than “Caged Bird,” this poem nonetheless similarly emphasizes the challenge of existing in an oppressive environment. “Still I Rise” centers a Black female speaker who specifically addresses the challenge of living under patriarchy and racism. “Caged Bird” doesn’t have the same explicit focus on gender and race. Even so, reading these poems together helps reveal how the speaker of “Caged Bird” may well be thinking specifically about the experience of Black women.

Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”

Both “Caged Bird” and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings allude to a poem called “Sympathy” by the important African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. SparkNotes doesn’t currently have a guide for “Sympathy.” However, students of Angelou’s poem would do well to consider our guide to “We Wear the Mask.” In this poem, Dunbar explores similar themes related to the constraining power of social oppression and the struggle to maintain dignity under conditions of confinement.

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