Angelou uses diction carefully to show the stark differences between the free and the enslaved. Stanzas one and four use specific describing words to portray the free bird as more dignified than the caged bird. “A free bird leaps… and floats…and dips his wing” (1,3,5). The free bird doesn’t just fly, it leaps into the sky; there …show more content…
The last two lines of these stanzas say, “the caged bird sings of freedom” (21-22, 27-28). What is interesting is that earlier in the stanza it says the caged bird is singing for,” things unknown but longed for still” (17,18). The caged bird hasn’t tasted freedom (“things unknown” (17)) but that is what it sings for. Its chains, the bars of its cage, prevent it from anything else but singing and it sings for freedom; something it has never known. This point of tension pulls the attention to how desirable freedom is. Typically, the unknown is a cause for trepidation, but not in this …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, the words are beautiful and full of confidence. This stanza is comfortable to read. Suddenly with the second stanza, there is a dramatic shift in the mood. The reader is introduced to a bird that “stalks down its narrow cage” (8,9). This is very different from the previous bird that was able to “claim the sky” (7). After stanzas two and three focus on the caged bird the poem shifts back to the free bird. Again, there are beautiful words and a scene that is easy to depict and comfortable to read. But stanza five follows with a harsh description of the caged bird. This bounce back and forth between the free and caged birds highlights their differences. It effectively forces the reader to notice how the free bird lives in comparison to the caged bird. Because of the structure the reader cannot help but see the harsh reality of slavery, the happy words of stanzas one and four cannot hide the fact that the enslaved live in misery and