Comprising six stanzas of free verse, "Caged Bird" opens with the unidentified speaker describing a bird taking flight and gliding on a wind current. The bird feels the warmth of sun rays on its wings as it "dares to claim the sky."
The speaker juxtaposes the free bird's flight to a caged bird who stalks his cage and feels rage over having clipped wings and tied feet. The bird's confining circumstances prompt him to sing a song infused with a fear of the freedom that the bird does not know but for which it longs nonetheless. The caged bird's tune reaches a distant hill, crossing the airspace his body cannot access.
The speaker returns to the free bird thinking about the arrival of another strong wind and the fat worms that await him on lawns. The speaker emphasizes the free bird's entitlement by saying he "claims the sky as his own." Meanwhile the caged bird, whose perch is "the grave of dreams" and whose "shadow shouts on a nightmare scream," again opens his throat to sing.
The poem closes with a repetition of the third stanza, which depicts the caged bird singing a song "of freedom."
