Sing Sing prison

called, “Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing,” in 1983. (Family Friends Poems web). This poem, Caged…

Born in Jackson, Mississippi on April 13, 1909 to a young couple still reeling from the death of an infant only three years prior, Eudora Welty was to later become among one of the most renowned and respected authors throughout most of the twentieth century. Raised by two protective, encouraging parents, and yet having grown up in a world where many Americans still lacked basic rights, it is with no doubt that her memories and experiences heavily influence her writing. The works of Eudora Welty…

“Be you. Make sure you're saying something when you're saying something. It's important to sound like you, to feel like you, to be like you. Be you.” -Erykah Badu. Just one of the many inspirational quotes said by the soulful artist. Born Erica Abi Wright later change to Erykah Badu,("kah" is an Egyptian term for one's "inner self," and "badu" is her favorite jazz-riff scat sound.) on February 26, 1971, in Dallas, Texas. Erykah was introduced into music and other arts in her early life because…

Postal Service tried to honor Angelou by giving a stamp a quotation under the credence that it was Angelou’s, but was actually from the Joan Walsh Anglund book, A Cup of Sun (Dwyer). The stamp still fittingly read, “A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a…

“‘Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers” Analysis Formalist Theory Example In the poem “‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers” Emily Dickinson doesn’t use many different literary devices but uses one in particular a lot. The author uses metaphors most throughout the poem. The first example of this is the title. The title uses a metaphor to call a “thing with feathers,” a bird, hope. It doesn’t say outright that it is a bird but it can be implied because it is a thing with feathers. Even though unrelated,…

defined in many ways to different minds, but in literary terms freedom means “the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved”. Two great poets by the name of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes wrote two extraordinary poems called “I know why the caged bird sings” and “Democracy”. These two poems open your eye to the word freedom. I choose these two poems because, me personally being of Haitian decent I see how my people are treated and thought of. We think we leave Haiti to be free by coming to…

other options but to “open [their] throat[s] to sing”, much like the caged bird (I.30). The caged bird uses the only thing it has left, its voice, to sing about “things unknown/but longed for still” as “the caged bird/sings for freedom”(II.33,34,36,37). Even though they were restricted, trapped and some felt that the dream they were fighting for was dead, African American’s used their last and most powerful gift; they were able to use their voice to sing of freedom, hoping that someone would…

What is your Cage? What keeps you back from freedom? Maya Angelou wrote an amazing and entertaining autobiography titled I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, about her hard life growing up as a black girl from the South. Among the hardships are things known as "cages" as stated as a metaphor from Paul Dunbar's poem "Sympathy." "Cages" are things that keep people from succeeding in life and being everything they want to be. Some of Maya Angelou’s cages include being black in the 1940's and her…

The Voice of a Leader: Maya Angelou Maya Angelou is most recognized for her Civil Rights-inspired poetry. Though she is much more than just a poet, she was a play-write, actor, professor, singer and dancer (Gillespie, M., Butler, R. J., & Long, R. A., 2008). She held many positions in her life and in all of them she stood out as a leader. In a time when women, like her, were not meant to do much of anything, Maya Angelou stepped out from the crowd to become an inspiring activist and recognized…

screen producer, director, performer, and singer. She published autobiographies, essays, and several poems. Maya Angelou earned tons of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. The first of her seven autobiographies were I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was written in 1969. This autobiography tells her life up to the age 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. Also, it was nominated for the National Book Award.…