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Now, read the poem.

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,

And the river flows like a stream of glass;

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—

I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird
beats his wing

Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling

When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;

And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—

I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;

It is not a carol of joy or glee,

But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—

I know why the caged bird sings!

—Paul Laurence Dunbar
opes: opens
chalice: a cup or goblet
steal: to come or go secretly or gradually
fain: gladly
bough: (say bao) a branch

About the poet
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) was one of the first influential Black poets in American literature. Dunbar wrote much of
his novels, short stories, essays, and many poems in standard English, and sometimes used African-American dialect for some of
his poems. He began writing stories and poems when still a child. He published his first poems ‘Our Martyred Soldiers’ and ‘On
the River’ at the age of 16. Dunbar’s first collection of poetry, Oak and Ivy was published in 1893. His first collection of short
stories, Folks From Dixie was published in 1898 and his first novel The Uncalled was published in 1898. He died of tuberculosis
on 9 February 1906, at the age of 33.
‘Sympathy’ was published in 1899, after the American Civil War. Although the African Americans were liberated from slavery,
they faced discrimination and oppression from the whites.
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