“Because when he sings… even the birds stop to listen.”

The quote has been misattributed to Maya Angelou at times, including on U.S. postage.
This quote by Joan Walsh Anglund (1967 in her book, A Cup of Sun) has been widely used by Maya Angelou without attribution to Walsh Walsh Anglund, and wrongly misattributed to Maya Angelou many, many times, including on U.S. postage. However, the quote belongs to Joan Walsh Anglund, and is from her book "A Cup of Sun" published in 1967. However, Maya Angelou changed the pronoun "He" to "It" but quoted everything else of Joan Walsh Anglund. Why Maya Angelou never attributed her most famous quote as being Joan Walsh Anglund's is still a mystery to this day.
Source: A Cup of Sun: A Book of Poems (1967)

Although it appears on U.S. postage featuring Angelou, this is actually a variant quote from the work of poet Joan Walsh Anglund. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Source: Postal Service releases Maya Angelou stamp with quote from another author, Josh Hicks, 7 April 2015, Washington Post, 9 April 2015 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/04/07/postal-serves-releases-maya-angelou-stamp-with-quote-from-another-author/,

Source: Perfected Sinfulness

Preface, 1928
The Story of San Michele (1929)

Source: The Oven Bird (1916)
Context: There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.

Seasons in the Sun&quot; (1961), as translated by Rod McKuen from Brel&#x27;s song &quot;Le Moribond&quot; ·  McKuen performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY__eaedtOA ·  Beach Boys performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzjIra9pheU<br>&lt;p&gt;Goodbye, Michelle, my little one;<br> You gave me love and helped me find the sun,<br>And every time that I was down<br>You would always come around<br>And get my feet back on the ground.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Goodbye, Michelle, it&#x27;s hard to die<br>When all the birds are singing in the sky;<br>Now that the spring is in the air,<br>With the flowers everywhere,<br>I wish that we could both be there!&lt;/p&gt;<br>As adapted in the Terry Jacks version (1974) <br class="br">Context: p&gt; Adieu, Francoise, my trusted wife;<br>Without you I&#x27;d have had a lonely life.<br>You cheated lots of times but then,<br>I forgave you in the end<br>Though your lover was my friend.Adieu, Francoise, it&#x27;s hard to die<br>When all the birds are singing in the sky.<br>Now that spring is in the air<br>With your lovers ev&#x27;rywhere,<br>Just be careful; I&#x27;ll be there.&lt;/p

Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt
Der in den Zweigen wohnet.
Bk. II, Ch. 11
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)