On the Pulse of Morning
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"On the Pulse of Morning" is a poem by writer and poet Maya Angelou that she read at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993. With her public recitation, Angelou became th
Angelou reciting "On the Pulse of Morning" at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993
President Bill Clinton (with Chelsea Clinton and Hillary Clinton), taking the oath of office during his inauguration in 1993
Amanda Gorman, reciting her poem, "The Hill We Climb," during Joe Biden's presential inauguration ceremony (January 20, 2021)..
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiography describing the young and early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story t
On the Pulse of Morning
…well known as a writer and poet. She had written five of the seven of her series of autobiographies, including the first and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). Although she was best known for her autobiographies, she was primarily known as a poet rather than an autobiographer. Early in her writing…
Cover from the first edition
The book's title comes from a poem by African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. The caged bird, a symbol for the chained slave, is an image Angelou uses throughout all her writings.
Frederick Douglass, 1840s. Angelou's autobiographies are within the tradition of the slave narrative, such as Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845).
In addition to being classified as an autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has also been called a Bildungsroman, like George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss.