i know why the caged bird sings poem essay

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Maya Angelou

I know why the caged bird sings.

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky. But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. 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. The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn and he names the sky his own But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. 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.

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya angelou, everything you need for every book you read..

Race, Inequality, and Identity

Young Marguerite grows up in the segregated American south; but I Know why the Caged Bird Sings is not simply an investigation of the history and effects of segregation: it is an incisive and honest examination of race, inequality, and identity.

Marguerite is taught by her grandmother to fear and avoid white people, and to think of them as godless, and not to be trusted. At the same time, she teaches her grandchildren never to…

Sex, Gender and Sexuality

This memoir is also an account of how sex and gender influence experience and identity. Marguerite recognizes that being a girl is a kind of disadvantage, and wishes occasionally that she had been born a boy. The novels she reads have men and boys as their heroes and protagonists, so she believes that to be a hero one must be male. Marguerite also feels pressure to be feminine and attractive, and is tormented by her…

Marguerite finds refuge in fiction, poetry, and language itself. The book is in many ways an account of how Maya Angelou came to be a poet, and her love of language plays a central role.

Marguerite is a quiet child, and especially after her assault, learns to take refuge in the sound and quality of others’ speech. She is told by her Uncles in St. Louis that it is okay if she is ugly so…

Religion also plays a complex role in Marguerite’s upbringing—though the church is a kind of sanctuary for the adults in the book, Marguerite is often intimidated by the church and associates it with punishment.

The importance of religion to black southerners is made clear early in the book. The passion of many adults in Marguerite’s church service embarrasses her; but adults see the church as a sanctuary for their displaced and disenfranchised people. The revivalist…

The memoir explores the complexity of familial bonds and the importance of family to a person’s experiences and identity. Maya and Bailey ’s relationship is in many ways at the center of the book. Young Marguerite loves her brother so dearly and trusts him so implicitly that she confides in him first about her attack. The children often have to cope with feelings of abandonment since they were sent away by their parents to live…

Home and Displacement

The memoir also explores the idea of home and the pain and confusion of displacement, and in doing so for the particular experience of Maya Angelou also more broadly portrays these issues with respect to the history and experience of black Americans.

Marguerite is sent away from her mother and father to live with her grandmother at a young age; one of her earliest memories is of displacement, of being sent away from her home…

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

By maya angelou, i know why the caged bird sings essay questions.

What role does the Great Migration play in Maya Angelou’s life and in the events of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings ?

The Great Migration is present in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings from the moment the book begins. Mother and Daddy Bailey send Maya and Bailey back South after their marriage and their hopes for economic prosperity in California fail. This movement of Black bodies from the American South to the North and West (and vice versa) is called the Great Migration. Maya’s family is one of the many Black families fleeing racial violence and oppression in the South, and searching for freedom and economic opportunities in the North and West. Maya and Bailey participate in the Great Migration again when Momma decides that the South is no longer safe for them after Bailey’s brush with white Stamps. The central idea of the Great Migration, the idea that prosperity and freedom from racism can be found if one just escapes the South, fuels many of the choices of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ characters. Thus, the Great Migration plays a critical, influencing role in many of the book’s events.

Discuss the character of Momma. What impact did she have on Maya’s life?

Momma is the matriarch of Maya’s family. A deeply religious woman, she raises Maya and Bailey strictly but fairly. Though Momma is not one to show affection, Maya knows that she is a recipient of Momma’s “deep-brooding love” (94). Without Momma, Maya and Bailey’s lives would have turned out very differently. After all, the kids are first sent to live with Momma because their parents are not fit to raise them. Daddy Bailey is too self-absorbed and vain, whereas Mother flits around like a butterfly and is “too beautiful to have children” (99). Momma provides Maya and Bailey with a stable home, more than enough food, and structure. Furthermore, she gives Maya her first lessons on dealing with and overcoming racism.

Bailey and Maya began the novel as inseparable siblings, but by the end Bailey seems to purposefully push his sister away. Why do you think Bailey alienates his sister?

Bailey’s most important relationships are with Maya and Mother. Bailey and Maya are dependent on one another from the beginning, starting when they were put alone on the train to Stamps. This closeness persists even after Bailey falls “instantly and forever in love” with Mother (99). The change in Bailey and Maya’s relationship begins subtly when they leave St. Louis and return to Stamps. Bailey begins to keep secrets from Maya, such as the one about Kay Francis, the white actress that resembles Mother. Maya gets her first girlfriend, and Bailey begins to explore sex with the girls in his acquaintance.

All of these developments seem like typical occurrences in the transition from child to adult. However, as Bailey’s relationship to Mother begins to fall apart, so does his relationship to Maya. When Mother kicks Bailey out of the house and Maya goes to comfort him, he tells her “leave me the shit alone” (431). And when he leaves for his job with Southern Pacific, the once loquacious and open siblings cannot find the words to verbalize their feelings and thoughts. It is important to note that Bailey’s relationship with Maya suffers around the same time as his relationship to Mother. As he transitions to manhood, Bailey alienates the principal women in his life. Perhaps this is a misguided attempt to be manlier. Or perhaps Bailey thinks he is too close to the women in his life. Both explanations have credence.

Analyze the influence of beauty and appearance on Maya’s life and choices.

From the opening pages of the book we are exposed to Maya’s beliefs about race and beauty. These beliefs do transform over the course of Caged Bird, but at the beginning Maya equates whiteness with beauty. She hopes that the lavender taffeta dress will make her “look like one of the sweet little white girls who were everybody’s dream of what was right in the world” (6). It is only until Maya sees Mother in St. Louis that she consciously acknowledges the beauty of Black women. It takes Maya even longer to realize her own beauty, but she finally does on the day of her lower school graduation. She still grapples with self-esteem issues, but her life in California helps her deal with that as well. She decides to take dance classes after Bailey tells her they would “make [her] legs big and widen [her] hips” (362).

It is also in California that Maya begins to fear her big feet, deep voice, skinny legs, and lack of breasts means she’s not a “real” woman, and a lesbian. Clearly, though she is growing more comfortable in her own body, Maya still harbors very particular ideals of what is beautiful and womanly, and what isn’t. Her desire to be like a woman leads Maya to have unprotected sex and become pregnant. The impact of beauty and appearance on Maya’s decisions and life cannot be overstated.

Compare and contrast the various settings in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Stamps, St. Louis, and San Francisco are extremely different cities. Stamps is heavily segregated, whereas St. Louis is less segregated and San Francisco lesser still. Stamps is located in rural Arkansas and lacks many of the modern conveniences and technologies that St. Louis and San Francisco have. Alternatively, the hustle and bustle of the two big cities can make them overwhelming places to live, unlike quiet and idyllic Stamps. Still, Stamps’ prevalent racial violence and oppression does not recommend it to Black Americans searching for freedom and opportunities. Though St. Louis and San Francisco are not strangers to racism, they aren’t as bad as Stamps. These are some of the reasons why Maya develops more during her years in St. Louis and San Francisco.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Before meeting Mrs flowers marguerite has refused any help why is Mrs flowers able to help her when others could not

The "aristocrat" of black Stamps, Mrs. Flowers is a gracious woman who encourages Maya's love of literature, and also helps Maya to break out of her muteness. Maya regards her as the pinnacle of humankind. Mrs. Flowers refuses to let Maya feel...

When he realizes that Maya is wounded, what does Maya’s father do? Why doesn’t he take Maya to see a doctor?

Maya's father doesn't take her to the doctor because he is afraid that the circumstances.... Maya being cut by his girlfriend.... would ruin his reputation.

In the car he explained that the couple were his friends and he had asked the wife to...

i know why the caged bird sings

Ms. Flowers is the "aristocrat" of black Stamps, she is a gracious woman who encourages Maya's love of literature, and also helps Maya to break out of her muteness. Maya regards her as the pinnacle of humankind. Maya finds Ms. Flowers a unique...

Study Guide for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings study guide contains a biography of Maya Angelou, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Summary
• Character List

Essays for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

• Maya Angelou and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• The Struggle for Self: Oppression's Effect on Identity
• Overcoming Black Oppression Through Empowerment

Lesson Plan for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

• Introduction
• Plot summary
• Style and genre

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou

• Literature Notes
• Form in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• About I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Introduction
• Chapters 1-3
• Chapters 4-5
• Chapters 6-7
• Chapters 8-9
• Chapters 10-11
• Chapters 12-13
• Chapters 14-15
• Chapters 18-19
• Chapters 20-23
• Chapters 24-25
• Chapters 26-29
• Chapters 30-32
• Chapters 33-36
• Maya Angelou Biography
• Critical Essays
• Settings in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Style in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Women in the Maya Character's Life
• A Note on Southern Fundamentalism
• Full Glossary for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Essay Questions
• Cite this Literature Note

Critical Essays Form in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou's first venture into autobiography, is, like the author herself, packed with promise. Like most autobiography, the story line follows the author's memories, which are colored by photos, letters, and other people's interpretations and repetitions of past events. The conversations are obviously padded or wholly fictionalized to fill in what people probably said at the time. The Maya character, sometimes endowed with more sophistication and understanding than is appropriate to her young age, reflects a blend of memory and the adult author's hindsight.

Taking her text from a line that echoes through Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "Sympathy," Angelou selects an evocative title linked to images of powerlessness and defeat, but resonant with hope, creative energy, and zestful savvy. As evidence that she has experienced the prototypical struggle for freedom and self-worth, she gives the impression of confessing all triumphs and shortcomings, even scenes and events which a more discreet author might have concealed from public view. The positive tone of her work uplifts the reader with renewed belief in the human ability to mitigate random injustice in order to survive. By growing stronger than the challenges that beset her, Maya completes the coming-of-age pilgrimage and arrives at adulthood, her dignity intact and her promise assured.

Ironically, the focal point of Angelou's talent is her delight in language, which she masters despite a year's self-imprisonment in muteness. Her skill at interweaving varied sounds, diction, metaphor, verse, hymns, scripture, and rhythms enlivens the narrative with texture and spirit. The resulting facile, readable blend covers the fourteen years of her childhood — from her arrival in Stamps, Arkansas, in 1931, at age three to her graduation from Lafayette County Training School and subsequent bonding with her three-week-old son at her mother's house in San Francisco in October 1945. Examples of her appealing turns of phrase are plentiful:

There was a cracker in Tulsa who bilked so many Negroes he could set up a Negro Bilking Company.

I kept my face blank (an old art) and wrote quickly the fable of Marguerite Johnson, aged nineteen, former companion and driver for Mrs. Annie Henderson (a White Lady) in Stamps, Arkansas.

"Hey, baby. What's the news?"

"Everything's steady, baby, steady."

"How you doing, pretty?"

"I can't win, 'cause of the shape I'm in."

[Momma] used to add, with a smirk that unprofane people can't control when venturing into profanity, "and wash as far as possible, then wash possible."

. . . Oh Mizeriz Coleman, how is your son? I saw him the other day, and he looked sick enough to die. . . . From the Uglies.

Biblical Exhortation

On the other side of Jordan, there is a peace for the weary, there is a peace for me.

Putting [his teeth] in his pocket, he gummed, "Naked I came into the world, and naked I shall go out."

We learned the times tables without understanding their grand principle, simply because we had the capacity and no alternative.

On Sunday mornings Momma served a breakfast that was geared to hold us quiet from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Conversation

"They have, in the North, buildings so high that for months, in the winter, you can't see the top floors."

"Tell the truth."

"They've got watermelons twice the size of a cow's head and sweeter than syrup. . . . And if you can count the watermelon's seeds, before it's cut open, you can win five zillion dollars and a new car."

Naturalistic Detail

The sounds of the new morning had been replaced with grumbles about cheating houses, weighted scales, snakes, skimpy cotton and dusty rows.

Whores were lying down first and getting up last in the room next door. Chicken suppers and gambling games were rioting on a twenty-four-hour basis downstairs.

The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power.

I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate rate.

Previous Maya Angelou Biography

Next Settings in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou: Racism and Segregation in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” Essay

Introduction, racism and segregation, works cited.

In the book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , the author, Maya Angelou, describes how she grew up as an intelligent Afro-American girl in South America and later in California in 1940’s. She gives an account of the various characteristics of her society that made her to mature. Having worked with Martin Luther in combating racism before her book, she had to incorporate the theme of racism in her work. Thus racism and segregation is highly depicted as a theme in her book (Angelou 1).

In this book, Maya comes across many instances of blatant racism. She is forced to face racism and segregation in her country at a very young age.

While living in Stamps, Arkansas, she experiences the region’s characteristic segregation to the extent that she believes that white people do not exist. At this tender age, she is made to believe that every good thing belongs to the whites. This is evidenced in many incidences. An example is that, as she fails to recite her poem in church, she notes that her dress is probably a handout from a white woman.

She associates blond hair with beauty and believes that she is trapped in a “black ugly dream” (Angelou 7) with an unattractive African-American body. She also believes that she will soon wake from her nightmare and become as beautiful as the whites. The segregation that is characteristic of Stamps is evidenced by the statement that Mrs. Henderson owns a store in the black segment of Stamps (Angelou 1 – 11).

As she grows older, Maya encounters racist incidences that are more open and personal. Some of these incidences include the demeaning address that is directed towards her by a white speaker during her eighth-grade graduation, she also faces racist problems while applying for a streetcar job but she overcomes the problems to get the job.

Her white boss is also depicted as a racist. He calls her Mary despite her disapproval. When she visits a white dentist, he declines to treat her. There is evidence that black people were prone to acts of violence perpetrated to them by their white counterparts. This is from the incidence in which Maya and Willie help a black man escaping a white lynch mob.

The importance that the black attach to the world championship boxing match of Joe Louis shows how the black people thirst for recognition and also proves inequality in the community. Maya is also portrayed as a racist in some ways. For instance, she feels guilty of loving the works of William Shakespeare due to the mere fact that he was white (Angelou 11 – 23). In summary, the book has a notable thematic bias on racism.

From the discussion above, it is clear that the community Maya is living in is faced with serious segregation and racism. Maya uses this community to describe how life was during her time. She creates events that depict how racism was deeply rooted in the American community in the 1940’s. As described, these events include her belief that black people are ugly, the derogatory address by a white speaker during her graduation, the refusal by a white dentist to treat her, etc (Angelou 10 – 24).

Through these experiences, she learns how racism and segregation has affected her family members’ characters and strives to overcome the pressure mounted on her by these social problems.

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings . U.S. Bantam Books, 1983. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2022, April 1). Maya Angelou: Racism and Segregation in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". https://ivypanda.com/essays/racism-and-segregation/

"Maya Angelou: Racism and Segregation in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"." IvyPanda , 1 Apr. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/racism-and-segregation/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Maya Angelou: Racism and Segregation in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"'. 1 April.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Maya Angelou: Racism and Segregation in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"." April 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/racism-and-segregation/.

1. IvyPanda . "Maya Angelou: Racism and Segregation in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"." April 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/racism-and-segregation/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Maya Angelou: Racism and Segregation in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"." April 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/racism-and-segregation/.

• “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou
• Racial Segregation in the "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
• Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: Three Stages of Spiritual Revival
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the Novel by Maya Angelou
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: A Coming-To-Age Story
• Skewed Perceptions in Maya Angelou’s Novel “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”
• The Theme in Maya Angelou’s Poems
• Characters in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”
• Maya Angelou’s "Champion of the World"
• Jorge Semprun: Before and After "The Long Voyage"
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The Wisdom & Stories of Maya Angelou at the Schomburg Center

The Schomburg Center and The New York Public Library announced the acquisition of the personal letters, photographs, audio-visual materials, and more of poet Maya Angelou at the press conference at the Schomburg Center in 2010. (Photo: Terrence Jennings)

In 2010, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture acquired the collection of celebrated poet, activist, actress, director, journalist, scholar, and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Maya Angelou. Items in the collection include handwritten manuscripts, letters, photographs, audio-visual materials, and more spanning over 300 boxes. Then Schomburg Center Director Dr. Howard Dodson and then President of The New York Public Library Dr. Paul LeClerc led the press conference at the Center’s Langston Hughes Auditorium announcing the acquisition. Angelou addressed the audience and took questions from the media.

As the Center marks National Poetry Month in April, Angelou’s birthday (April 4) and the 10th anniversary of her passing (May 28), watch the press conference, which was recorded on that historic day. Discover what she said about her friends—author James Baldwin and human rights activist Malcolm X—and her love of libraries. 

Meeting Up with James Baldwin in New York

Maya Angelou's collection includes letters to friends and fellow writers Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. Both are pictured here at the Schomburg Center in 1986. (NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 58743098)

Angelou (1928–2014) and Baldwin (1924–1987) first met in the 1950s when Angelou was part of the production of  Porgy and Bess in France. The love and respect between the two resulted in them referring to each as “brother” and “sister.” She shared a story of when they met up while in New York City in response to a question about their friendship:

“The first limousine I ever rode in, Jimmy came and picked me up,” she said. “Jimmy took me to a joint down on 44th Street—really a bar in a hotel, a transient hotel.” 

Angelou recalled Baldwin’s surprising response to a man making unwelcome overtures to her. ( Time code: 25:21 )

Did you know Baldwin wrote the liner notes for Angelou's 1969 poetry album The Poetry of Maya Angelou ? Learn more about the materials in the collections on Angelou.

Malcolm X’s 1964 Visit to Ghana

In this 1962 photo, Malcolm X is on the Barry Gray Show with activists James Farmer, Gloster B. Current, and Ossie Davis. Ruby Dee is partially visible behind Farmer. Maya Angelou and fellow Black American activists living in Ghana in 1964 worked to arrange a meeting with the country's President Kwame Nkrumah. (NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 58076718)

During Malcolm X’s (1925–1965) pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, he visited The Republic of Ghana. Angelou and fellow Black Americans activists such as Julian Mayfield (1928–1984), Alice Windom (1936–2022), and Vicki Garvin (1915–2007) were living in Accra at the time. They arranged for him to meet with ambassadors and speak at Ghana’s equivalent of the U.S. House of Representatives. However, they were having difficulty setting up a meeting with Ghana’s president Kwame Nkrumah, said Angelou in response to the question from the press. 

Angelou discussed the challenges they faced securing a face-to-face conversation, reveals the person who had to be persuaded to assist, and what she learned from Malcolm X (1925-1965) from the experience. 

“I love him dearly,” she said of her friend. “He continues to teach.” ( Time Code: 29:57 )

The Schomburg is also home to the collections of Malcolm X , Julian Mayfield , and Vicki Garvin . 

[ Did you know the lives, works, and legacies of Angelou, Malcolm X and James Baldwin have inspired some of rap’s music? Discover some of the legendary lyricists inspired by the three . ]

Angelou’s Love of Libraries & Support of Schomburg Center

Her memoir  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , which discussed her early years, recounts living in segregated Arkansas, the racism she experienced, and sexual abuse she endured as a child. She voluntarily became mute after her abuser was later murdered. Angelou blamed herself. 

She recalled being taken to a library and why they held a treasured place in her life.

“A library is a rainbow in the clouds,” Angelou said. “Each time I went to the library, I felt safe. No bad thing can happen to you in the library.” 

Did you know Angelou fundraised for the Schomburg Center? She served as the National Membership Chair of the Schomburg Society when it launched in 2000 until her death in 2014. 

Under her leadership, the group raised over $7 million. Support primarily came from individual donors. Angelou also gifted the Center with items such as the only known film of Paul Robeson in concert, Dr. Dodson said.

During her career of over 40 years, Angelou wrote more than 30 books, won three Grammy Awards, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Her acclaimed work includes the bestselling book  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), the poetry anthology  And Still I Rise (1978), and the spoken word album  Phenomenal Woman . She directed the 1998 film  Down in the Delta .

Watch the press conference . 

More blogs by Lisa Herndon:

• 1924: A Year in the Life of Future Schomburg Center Founder Arturo Schomburg
• Patricia Spears Jones Discusses Her New Poetry Anthology & Her Collection at the Schomburg Center
• Sheroes in the Schomburg Center’s Collections
• Four Fascinating Facts About Toni Morrison’s Ties to the Schomburg Center

Get Schomburg Center news delivered directly to your Inbox.  Sign up for the free e-newsletter, Schomburg Connection .

Join the Schomburg Center on  Facebook ,  X (formerly Twitter ), and  Instagram .

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Use Your Allusion: See How Many Literary References You Recognize

By J. D. Biersdorfer March 28, 2024

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Lines from poems and plays frequently serve as inspiration for later literary allusions. This 12-question quiz is crafted from a running list created by the Book Review’s staff to test your knowledge on a wide variety of referenced works. The source material spans thousands of years and includes ancient Greek history and modern pop songs.

The quiz is in the multiple-choice format, so just tap or click your answers. After you finish, you’ll get your score and a list of links to the original works. (And yes, the headline above does allude to a pair of 1991 albums from the rock band Guns N’ Roses. Give yourself extra credit if you spotted it.)

Video illustration by Erik Carter

Over the years, “I Sing the Body Electric” has been used repeatedly, including as the title for a Ray Bradbury short story (and his “Twilight Zone” script), as a musical anthem to creativity in the 1980 film “Fame” and in the lyrics of a 2012 Lana Del Rey song. But who said it first?

Benjamin Franklin

Mary Shelley

Walt Whitman

Paule Marshall

Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel “Things Fall Apart,” Joan Didion’s 1968 essay collection “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and Robert B. Parker’s 1983 thriller “The Widening Gyre” all take their titles from the same poem. What is the original poem — and who is its author?

“The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats

“The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost

“‘Hope’ Is the Thing With Feathers,” by Emily Dickinson

“The Charge of the Light Brigade,” by Alfred Tennyson

“Band of Brothers,” the 2001 World War II television drama, is based on a 1992 book by Stephen E. Ambrose. But which previous work used the phrase “band of brothers” quite notably?

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” by Erich Maria Remarque

“Henry V,” by William Shakespeare

“Richard III,” by William Shakespeare

“The Red Badge of Courage,” by Stephen Crane

Wait! “Band of Brothers” was decades ago and I just finished watching the new “Masters of the Air” series. Is that show’s title an allusion as well? If so, quiz me!

George Orwell

Winston S. Churchill

John Maynard Keynes

Moving on from land and air to water now: The title of “The Sea, the Sea,” Iris Murdoch’s 1978 novel, is also a famous line (“Θάλαττα! θάλαττα!” in the original language) shouted by Greek warriors when they reached the top of a mountain and could see a nearby body of water. What is the name of the Greek work?

“Odyssey,” by Homer

“Lysistrata,” by Aristophanes

“The Persians,” by Aeschylus

“Anabasis,” by Xenophon

Which 1951 poem by Langston Hughes gave the playwright Lorraine Hansberry the title for her 1959 stage play, “A Raisin in the Sun”?

“Let America Be America Again”

“The Weary Blues”

OK, back to Shakespeare, because that guy had a serious literary output that is still influential centuries later: Which one of the following books does NOT take its title from “Macbeth”?

“The Sound and the Fury,” by William Faulkner

“Let It Come Down,” by Paul Bowles

“For Whom the Bell Tolls,” by Ernest Hemingway

“Something Wicked This Way Comes,” by Ray Bradbury

“The Moon Is Down,” by John Steinbeck

The last line of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 1899 poem “Sympathy” gave Maya Angelou the title for her first autobiography in 1969. What is that title?

“Little Brown Baby”

“Invitation to Love”

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

Elif Batuman has named both a novel and a nonfiction book after works by a certain 19th-century Russian author who wrote, among other things, “The Brothers Karamazov.” Who is this writer?

Alexander Pushkin

Leo Tolstoy

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Nikolai Gogol

Which novelist is renowned for his allusions to popular music and literature in his work — and named his 1987 novel after a Beatles song on the band’s 1965 “Rubber Soul” album?

Bret Easton Ellis

Haruki Murakami

Paul Beatty

Hanif Kureishi

In the epigraph of his 2015 book, “Between the World and Me,” Ta-Nehisi Coates quotes a passage of a poem with the same title that influenced him. Who wrote that poem?

Gwendolyn Brooks

James Baldwin

Toni Morrison

Richard Wright

Which Scotsman’s work inspired the titles of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”?

Sir Walter Scott

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Burns

James Boswell

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You never know what’s going to go wrong in these graphic novels, where Circus tigers, giant spiders, shifting borders and motherhood all threaten to end life as we know it .

When the author Tommy Orange received an impassioned email from a teacher in the Bronx, he dropped everything to visit the students  who inspired it.

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .