“What is this poetry? A mortal mind
Made visible; a caged bird?
Nay more:it is a spiritleft behind
Nailed by the piercing word.”

“Patience! Hence—that word was made
For brutes of burthen, not for birds of prey;
Preach it to mortals of a dust like thine,—
I am not of thine order.”

“Good writers are visible just behind their words.”

“One does not care for the cage when the bird has flown away from it. and when the bird of life flies away, no one cares for the body left behind.”

“Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long for.”

“A cage went in search of a bird.”

“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill,
of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill,
for the caged bird sings of freedom.”

“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”

“A forest bird never wants a cage.”

“God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.”