Maya Angelou uses a different perspective of being free and being caged in 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Instead of comparing people, she compares a free bird and a caged bird. The title "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" seems to represent the feelings of being a slave in the earlier years and knowing the feelings the slaves had to go through. Maya Angelou is an African-American, she most likely wrote this poem to describe her feelings as a kid or the feelings her relatives told her about being a slave. The poem alternates between the free bird and the caged bird and gives different perspectives of each bird. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is broken up into six stanzas compiled of six-teen lines of poetry.
             The free bird in the poem has so many more opportunities than the caged bird. In the first six lines of the poem, Maya Angelou is comparing the two birds. "A free bird leaps on the back of the wind" (1) while the caged bird "stalks down his narrow cage" (4). I believe the birds represent people. The free bird is a free man, and the caged bird is a slave. The free bird has all the opportunities in the world and can do anything he sets his mind to. The caged bird has nothing to look forward to except his life of being told what to do and not having any freedom at all. The free bird can do anything as long as he allows himself/herself to do so and has the willpower as represented in lines two and three: "floats downstream till the current ends" (2) "and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky" (3). The caged bird can barely do anything on his own or think for himself. "His wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing" (6) is repeated twice in the poem in stanza's two and five on the last line of each stanza. I believe Maya Angelou incorporated this twice in the poem to describe the repetition and the terrible life of being a slave. "...opens his throat to sing" ...