I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiography about the early years, from the ages of 3 to 16, of author Maya Angelou's life. The book's title is taken from a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar. It begins with the abandonment of young Maya and her older brother, whose parents send them by train to Stamps, Arkansas to live with their grandmother, and ends with Maya's entrance into adulthood by becoming a mother.