Observation

This is a popular question. However, most of the candidates did not state the theme of the poem. Some candidates also did a historical narration of how Africans were enslaved.
The requirements of the question include:

• Statement of the theme of freedom of nature. The caged bird is deprived of freedom by her captors.
• The caged bird’s special circumstances: the bird is denied its freedom. It is unable to fly about at will. It is restricted, lonely and distressed.

• The advantage of the free bird: the free bird ‘leaps on the back of the wind’, gliding airborne as the current blows it.
• The disadvantage of being caged: unlike the free bird, the caged bird has restricted space; access from its ‘narrow cage’ is its ‘bars of rage’. The caged bird can only dream about its freedom as ‘things unknown/ but longed for still’.
• The sorrow in the caged bird’s song: denied natural freedom, it sings pitifully in captivity. Its song is one of grief and woe.

Candidates’ performance in the question was good.