“I know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is a poem written by Maya Angelou and it gives me goose pimples.

http://talkingdictionary.clubefl.gr/category/poems/

On this website you can listen to it and at the same time do many useful exercises (word revisions, matching games, crosswords etc. ) in connection with the poem. If you also want to read the poem istself click here http://poemhunter.com/poem/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings/

I’ve read Maya Angelou’s  autobiographical book from the sixties with the same name in which she explores racism, identity or rape  which she experienced in her youth in Stamps, Arkansas where she and her elder brother lived with their grandmother, and in St. Louis where she lived with her mother and Mr. Freeman! When this friend of the familiy got killed Maya considered herself responsible and didn’t speak for a long time. She was also punished by her relatives for her behaviour.

The caged bird is a methapher for the suffering of her race from which it is struggeling  to escape. Maya was afraid of being lesbian and therefore looked for a boyfriend by whom she got pregnant at the age of 17. Here you can read chapter summaries and get other information.http://www.bookrags.com/notes/ikwc/SUM.html

I’ve also read and written a summary of ” The Help” by  Kathryn Stocket in which racism in Mississipi in the same period is the topic.

http://www.langedi49.ch/langedi49/Blog_Books_Bucher/Eintrage/2012/1/5_The_Help_by_Kathryn_Stockett.html

The film is now in our cinemas with Emma Stone as Skeeter.

Last but not least on http://talkingdictionary.clubefl.gr/category/poems/ there are many other topics you can work on.