An argument can be made that the entire conceit of the poem represents understatement by situating a small bird in a tiny cage as a metaphor for the concept of the African-American experience of being in held in bondage to systemic racism. In this lesson, we'll take a look at some examples of rhetorical devices in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. He was too cool for the new school as a rule. When describing sounds, sometimes it helps to compare them to something else using a simile or metaphor. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Study Guide, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Literary Devices, Examples of Personification in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, Historical & Literary Context of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Literary Analysis, Figurative Language in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Imagery in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Analysis & Examples, Foreshadowing in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Rhetorical Devices in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Allusions in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Motifs in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Metaphors in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Similes in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Hyperbole in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Point of View in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Symbols in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Parallelism in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Character Analysis, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Chapter Summaries, ILTS English Language Arts (207): Test Practice and Study Guide, Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators - Writing (5723): Study Guide & Practice, EPT: CSU English Language Arts Placement Exam, Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators: Reading (5713) Prep, College English Literature: Help and Review, Praxis English Language Arts: Content Knowledge (5038) Prep, SAT Subject Test Literature: Practice and Study Guide, Common Core ELA - Writing Grades 9-10: Standards, College English Composition: Help and Review, CSET English Subtests I & III (105 & 107): Practice & Study Guide, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Analysis & Themes, Mrs. Bertha Flowers in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Analysis & Quotes, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Title Meaning, Racism & Segregation in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Setting & Time Period. Have each student save his or her page, naming it to indicate the letter and the author (e.g., z_alicia). There is also an animalistic element to the word howled which, used in this context, helps the reader hear the loud, imposing noise of the wind as though it were a wild animal in pain. Well, he's not really older than dirt, but the intended audience gets your point: He's really, really old. Name two ways that the refrain contributes to the overall meaning of the poem. In this novel, place--whether it be physical or societal--and family are extremely important. So how can a writer describe sounds in an effective way? That's more of a fancy way of saying that instead of being literal with an idea, you use characters, events, or other elements in order to describe it in a way the reader can better understand. With each step he took the pavement shook as if it were a herd of buffalo running past, so loud the birds in the trees cried out in protest, the frantic flurry of their feathered wings beating a rhythm in time with his.OK, this isnt a great piece of writing, but you get the idea! For more writing articles, take a look at ourblog page. As you circulate, again ask each student to write or tell you the definition of alliteration. A magical thing And sweet to remember. ", Angelou makes extensive use of pathetic fallacy, the attribution of human feelings to inanimate objects or animals. In Angelou's book, a good example of hyperbole is a young Angelou trying to keep control of her bladder after a church service: ''I tried to hold, to squeeze it back, to keep it from speeding, but when I reached the church porch I knew I'd have to let it go, or it would probably run right back up to my head and my poor head would burst like a dropped watermelon, and all the brains and spit and tongue and eyes would roll all over the place.''. Alliteration, First Syllables, and Stressed Syllables You might also want to assign this project for homework to involve the entire family. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form. This is because a loud cackle is an effective piece of sound writing to describe the sound a witch would make. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. What if youre in a more urban area? This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Perhaps the material presence realized by alliteration . ''Although I enjoyed and respected Kipling, Poe, Butler, Thackeray and Henley, I saved my young and loyal passion for Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. What is the meaning of "bars of rage" mentioned in the second stanza. Maya Angelou uses a myriad of poetic devices in "Caged Bird," including metaphor, rhyme, imagery, alliteration, personification, and repetition. 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. By "close proximity," we mean words that can bebut don't have to beconsecutive. In addition, "dawn bright lawn" and "fat worms" and even "sighing trees" are examples of vivid imagery. Adjective Words to Describe Birds. Rhetorical devices abound in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, that makes the reading more memorable. For instance: The relationship between "breeze"/"trees" vividly evokes the sense of the outdoors, a bird's natural habitat, while the half-rhyme of "lawn"/"own" implies that the free bird feels that the breeze, the trees, the lawn, and everything else all belong to him by rights. The reason for the bird singing his song is a slight example of tragic irony. In my opinion, the broader the theme/topic/subject, the harder it gets. In "Caged Bird," Maya Angelou uses several poetic devices including alliteration, imagery, and symbolism. In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel set in the Great Depression of the 1930s, the author uses alliteration specifically when the narrator is describing a family or a place. Have a strong reader read the sentence as you record it on the page. How to Identify Alliteration. We are giving the reader the opportunity to recall how it feels to walk on dry leaves. This cookie is set by CloudFare. What is Alliteration? Angelou also uses metaphor in the first stanza to compare the wind to water, saying that the free bird "floats downstream / till the current ends." In this project, your class will use their writing skills to create their own Amazing Animal Alliteration book. Another example from the poem is and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees provides a more pleasant auditory experience for the reader. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Students: a. choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication. You might also want to assign this project for homework to involve the entire family. This cookie is known as Google Cloud Load Balancer set by the provider Google. Now, have the class brainstorm all of the adjectives and adverbs they can think of for this letter. The bird, moreover, is personified when she says that he "dares to claim the sky" and, later, that "he names the sky his own.". Alliteration is useful in this description, because it helps the reader slow down and take notice of the stark difference between Scout's white society and the black one she is now experiencing. Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. There are occasional end rhymes, such as "cage" and "rage" in stanza two, "trill, still" and "hill" and "heard" and "bird" in stanza three, "breeze" and "trees" in stanza four, and repetition of stanza three's end rhymes in the final stanza. Here is a list of 101 examples of alliteration in alphabetical order : Examples of Alliteration Using the "B" Sound 1. Perhaps you can hear the distant sound of children playing, the scurry of small creatures in the undergrowth, the chattering of people, the squeaky wheel of a pushchair, the leaves rustling in the trees. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. Which of the following identifies the central theme of this poem? People cannot live a full, happy life without freedom. Assonance is the repetition of the same or similar rhyming vowel sounds within a group of words. flashcard sets. An isolated simile within the verse compares a river stream of glass. Poets very often use alliteration in their work, to enhance the sing-song sound as the work is read aloud. She's not really that slow . In Chapter 9, alliteration can be seen when Scout is describing her father Atticus' childhood home. What do you want your readers to hear and feel? The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. ''Everyone eats eggplant'' is not alliterative because it repeats vowels. The fact that Angelou said these commandments controlled their salvation is another witty addition that shows how seriously her grandmother's words were taken. 4 Acer Walk , Oxford, OX2 6EX, United Kingdom. Ask a student volunteer to draw a picture depicting the sentence. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". 2. Other literary devices are used excessively. The same is true in the fifth stanza as the caged bird's "shadow shouts on a nightmare scream.". I've only listed three of them here, but a close reading of the poem yields many more, so it would be a good idea to consult the eNotes Guide to Literary Terms while working through the poem to see which poetic devices you can identify. You utter, ''Who do you think I am, Superman?'' In this example, it is the ee sound being used, that gives the sentence a certain resonance and elongates its delivery. You might try nursery rhyme favorites like Betty Botter Bought Some Butter or Peter Piper: Before students work on creating their own pages, write a sentence together to practice. The Chesire cat is a character from Alice in Wonderland, a slightly mad cat who always wears a smile. This cookie is set by Hotjar. These are literary elements which exist purely in the abstract within the poem. You can help us out by revising, improving and updating Uncle Willie in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Conflict in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Relationship of Maya & Bailey in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Tone & Mood, Themes Quotes in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Writing Style, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. The mood changes abruptly in the next stanza when she describes the free bird: words like "trade winds soft" and "sighing trees" with "fat worms" on a "dawn bright lawn" show the bird has a life of promise and possibility, as opposed to the thwarted life of the caged bird that lacks such promise. The largest is the 30-foot-long [9 m] ostrich. We also find end rhyme as well as alliteration in the second stanza of the poem, when Angelou describes how the caged bird is physically confined. Have students draw a letter out of a bag or assign letters based on student academic ability. In this project, your class will use their writing skills to create their own Amazing Animal Alliteration book. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Tail feathers are used for steering. Alliteration is the repetition of an initial consonant sound in words that are in close proximity to each other. "What are the poetic devices used in Maya Angelou's poem "Caged Bird"?" Pay attention to the way authors implement their own sound writing. See how D.H. Lawrence uses onomatopoeia in "Piano" to describe the sounds of a piano: Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see. A word or sentence you would like to alliterate. The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. Sympathy essays are academic essays for citation. A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. Alliteration is used quite often in poetry as it helps create a certain tone or mood for a poem. Alliteration is a technique that makes use of repeated sound at the beginning of multiple words, grouped together. The smallest is a two-inch-long [2 cm] hummingbird. Moreton, Daniel. serves as an element of rhythm emphasizing the beat [of the poem]. That treacherous word that yawned up at you like a volcano.'' It is the oo sound incorporated into this sentence,which matters, not the concoction of different letters. Alliteration can give a poem a calm, smooth feeling or a loud, harsh one.