Question

1. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
1. Who is referred to as a free bird in the poem? Why?
2. To what is the free bird compared in the first two lines of the extract? How is the action of the bird shown to be free and enjoyable?
3. "A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind."
What implied comparison is made here?
4. Explain what is meant by "the orange sun rays."
5. How does the free bird dare to claim the sky?

Answer 1

1.the white Americans are referred as the free bird in the poem.because it had the full freedom unlike a caged bird(black Americans).

2.the free bird is compared to white Americans.it leaps on the back of the wind,floats downstream,dips his wings in orange sun rays and claims the sky

Answer 2

v. Free bird dare to claim the sky as there is no boundations or restrictions on the free bird because of which he can claim the sky.In the poem free birds represents the white Americans of Angelou"s time.Because during Angelou"s time White Americans are free as compared to the black Americans.