Caged Bird, Maya Angelou

While going through the poetry outloud website, I found it overwhelming to just scroll through the poems, so I entered the poets section. One of the first names I saw was Maya Angelou, so I choose it and the caged bird is her only poem on the website. Initially, I choose it because there is clearly a lot of meaning behind the bird and it was also a rhyming poem. However, as I've been practicing memorizing the poem, I enjoy myself. Although it is somewhat dark, I find that there is a lot of hope in it. Should the bird be free, it can "dip his wings in orange sun rays." The poem can be looked at in a more depressing way thinking that maybe black people will never be free, however today they are. While racism still exists, I believe many African-Americans live wonderful lives and are no longer effected by the color of their skin.I like that the poem has a historical background; it's nice to read something and understand what the author is referring to without coming up with a million options before. I also love the way the poem sounds and looks. It rhymes a lot in the second stanza and I love rhyming. Also, the poem has beautiful imagery. There was no real personal reason that I choose this poem. I wish I had picked one that I could say was personal, but the website had so many it was hard to choose!