The Song Of The Caged Bird

Clarence Okoh

Mrs. Nolen

Honors English 11

24 April 2009

The Song of the Caged Bird

A mighty chorus lingers throughout the halls of literature. Its unbro                         ken spirit radiates throughout the ancient chamber. The song is a melody bemoaned with hardship, bolstered with reassurance, and captivated with wonder. It is the song of Maya Angelou. The legacy of Angelou is apparent even during her continued lifespan. She contributes endlessly to the poetic world, and through this median Angelou finds her voice. Her story did not begin with such grace and fortune, rather it was marred with incredulity and displacement. Through a series of life altering events, Angelou was able to clasp the literary authority she now posses. Angelou has acquired quite the repertoire possessing four volumes of poetry, five autobiographies, along with various plays and screenplays (Hagen 118). Angelou’s body of works deliberates the triumph of human might over adversity and desolation and through her willful stroke she allows the reader to breathe the essence of her works. Maya Angelou faced many hardships both internal and external alike, yet the consistent combatant to all forms of hardship has been her courage. Courage is not merely an emotion for her but rather an action and furthermore a state of existence.
In order to grasp Angelou it is imperative that one must understand her life. Angelou’s works center around everyday items and complex societal issues of the Vietnam Era.(Hagen 119). Maya Angelou has published five volumes of autobiographical non-fiction with elements of magical realism, and poetic exaggeration. In her first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings the reader can see Angelou from birth in rural Arkansas until the birth of her son at seventeen (Lupto 257). Angelou’s childhood was distinguished by constant movement and misfortune. Angelou was born in St. Louis Missouri in 1928 as Marguerite Johnson. She at the age of three was...