“A NIGHTINGALE CANNOT SING IN A CAGE” – OR CAN IT?

Abstract

The international proverb “A nightingale (or other bird) cannot (does not, will not) sing in a cage” is several centuries old—prevalent in English since the eighteenth century—though rebuttals or exceptions to the proverb, both popular and “scientific,” have also been common. In modern times a special application of the proverb occurs in the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar and in the prose and verse of Maya Angelou.

Keywords

• international proverbs
• proverbs in English
• popular beliefs
• songbirds
• Aesop
• William Caxton