Poetry out loud

1. Poetry out loud By: crismary Lorenzo • http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/poetic_gl • http://mayaangelou.com/bio/ossary.html

2. About the author(Maya Angelou) • Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. • Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri • Angelou’s love for the arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. • was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received 3 Grammy Awards. • As a young single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, however her passion for music, dance, performance, and poetry would soon take center stage.

3. Caged Bird By: Maya Angelou • A free bird leaps • On the back of the wind • And floats downstream • Till the current ends • And dips his wing • In the orange sun rays • And dares to claim the sky. • But a bird that stalks • Down his narrow cage • Can seldom see through • His bars of rage • His wings are clipped and • His feet are tied • So he opens his throat to sing. • The caged bird sings • With a fearful trill • Of things unknown • But longed for still • And his tune is heard • On the distant hill • For the caged bird • Sings of freedom. The free bird thinks of another breeze And the trade winds soft through the sighing trees And the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn And he names the sky his own But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream His wings are clipped and his feet are tied So he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings With a fearful trill Of things unknown But longed for still And his tune is heard On the distant hill For the caged bird sings of freedom

4. poetic structure/poetic terms Stanzas: 6, 37 lines Rhyme: leaps, downstream, cage and rage Rhythm: recurrence of accent or stress in lines of verse. Ballad- tells story Repetition- some lines in the poem repeats to

5. Lines 1-10(literal meanings) The free bird fly's down stream. A free bird leaps On the back of the wind And floats downstream Till the current ends And dips his wing In the orange sun rays And dares to claim the sky. But a bird that stalks Down his narrow cage Can seldom see through His bars of rage The free bird fly in sun and continues to rise as he does. A bird that stuck in his own anger.

6. Intended theme Don’t give up even when all hope seems lost and you feel you have no where to go, or no one to turn to.

7. Poem Speaker • Maya Angelou is the poem speaker for “caged bird”

8. Literary Analysis • a caged bird is not able to do things that it wants. It has no freedoms and is trapped. So the caged bird does the only thing he can do, SING!!! A free bird soars through the sky's/goes where he wants, with nothing holding him back.

9. Figurative analysis • People who strive to succeed and strive to be themselves are free of all worries. These people do not hold themselves back and stay put when life or times get hard, these people keep moving forward and do everything in their power to get through their situation. Thesepeople will end up not knowing what to do.

10. Authors purpose • The authors purpose ofthis poem was to teach that when life brings you down, don’t stay down, you need to continue to try your best weather or not you feel like there is no escape at all. Keep fighting, keep trying, let your voice be herd, and sing your fears and laugh your pain away!