Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Sympathy"
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46459/sympathy-56d22658afbc0
The poem that inspired Angelou's "Caged Bird." "Sympathy" features a speaker who sympathizes with a caged bird whose song is a plea for freedom.
The Question and Answer section for Caged Bird is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
The free bird can claim the sky: a metaphor for free blacks in the United States, while a caged bird is in his 'bar of rage' . The caged bird represents oppressed blacks in the United States.
The caged bird’s song is a symbol for the freedom he longs for but has never known. Confined to a cage, the bird uses the power of his voice to move through the airspace his body cannot access. Although the bird cannot fly, he can still express...
Through juxtaposing a bird who feels entitled to his freedom and a caged bird who longs for a freedom he has never known, "Caged Bird" presents an allegory for the difference between how white and Black Americans, respectively, experience their...