Solomon @ Ruapotaka School

Today in class we investigated the central idea of caged bird

Caged Bird Central Idea and Tone

Group members:

Focus: Critical Questions for Understanding Poet’s Purpose - Useful link

LI: identify and critique the author’s intention for writing; identify symbols and inferences in writing;

SC: identify tone; diction; poetic devices; describe impact or intended effect.

Identify the speaker of the poem: The speaker of the poem is the caged bird who sings for freedom but is not heard/ignored as he longs for still for the day to come.

What is the speaker’s tone?: The speaker is speaking in a negative tone as the caged bird is singing with a fearful trill and seldom seeing through his bars of rage.(Those are holding him back).There are 4- paragraphs and 2+ paragraphs.

What vocabulary is used (diction), which reveals the speaker’s tone?:The negative vocab it has is how the caged bird is singing/ with a fearful trill and the bars of rage.His feet are tied so he can’t lift off and his wings are clipped which this all reveals the tone.There is more i can’t say

What is the connotation, implied or true meaning of each word ?: The meaning of Grave of dreams is a dream that will never come true such as they are exploring but they are trapped in something like inside a huge wall and can’t get out.Singing with a fearful trill means the voice of the bird is modified like a seagulls but with a lot more fear to it.

What stanzas are repeated? Stanza 3 and 6 are repeated showing how much the caged bird wants freedom but the caged bird can not have it as the caged bird is being ignored over and over again singing to be heard one day.

Why are they repeated? Because it explains that the caged bird wants freedom and how the free bird is living the best life in the clouds and dipping his wings in the rays of the bright sun.Sometimes to people freedom is the last hope and last resort.

Identify FOUR symbols from the poem which are used to stand for bigger ideas than their literal meaning? The Caged has a representative of the people being trapped as the free bird can represent the leader and the mastermind behind keeping everyone in.The cage represents where they are stuck or a country then the songs of freedom represent the people trying to stop something from happening so they can be free.

What is the central idea of the poem?: The voice is the caged bird singing for freedom that he longed for.The imagery is two birds ; one is free and wants to claim the sky and the other is trapped within real bars and bars or rage. These are two elements of the central idea

State central idea in one sentence: The caged bird is the person being treated how they don’t want to be treated either being imprisoned or becoming slaves of a certain country or person which now they want to be freed from their nightmare.This all highlights the differences between being trapped and being free.

Last question: Based on what we know about Angelou’s life, what are the possible connections between Angelou’s life and her poem “Caged Bird”?

She was the caged bird that was singing for freedom and wanted to tell the world how people treated her race.

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