"I know what the caged bird feels, Alas!"
The controlling theme of the poem is established in the opening line with the speaker’s comparison of his life to that of being stuck in a cage like bird. The addition of the “Alas!” adds emotional weight to the comparison, suggesting the despair within the comparison.
"For he must fly back to his perch and cling"
The imagery of the bird having no choice but to go back to unnatural home of the perch underlines that the poem is about being black in America and alludes to the life of slaves and those living in “black neighborhoods” who didn’t have the freedom to simply move away from their unhappy situation.
"I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—"
These lines offer a repetition of the comparison between the speaker and the bird in the cage, but this time there is a specific parallel to the bird singing even when it hurts and is feeling sorrow. This the front that blacks in American are expected to put on. People expect to hear birds in a cage singing so that is what they get. But the song is not joyful; it is a show.
"But a prayer he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—"
Not only is the song the bird sings not joyful and often just a show of joy; sometimes it is not even a song at all. The poem concludes with the revelation that what appears to be singing to the those outside the cage is not really a song at all, but a prayer the bird sends to heaven as a plea for release from his bondage.
