I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright sky; he names the sky his own.

But the caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.

• Paul Laurence Dunbar