Sympathy

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

Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;

For he must fly back to his perch and

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

And a pain still throbs in the old, old

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!

The above poem was published in Lyrics of the Hearthside by Dodd,

Mead and Company in 1899.~~This is the poem that inspired Maya Angelou's