A Long Way Gone By Emily Bronte

The title of this story is A Long Way Gone, it is a historical memoir written by Ishmael Beah. This story was published on February 15th 2007 by Sarah Crichton Books.

In the second stanza, Dunbar refers to the emotional and physical abuse that imprisonment and oppression puts on both the caged bird and the African Americans. Dunbar begins the second stanza with,

The authors message in this poem is that never ever give up in whatever situation we are in and to express ourselves even though the stronger wants to suppress the weaker. This poem can be considered as the poet’s personal expression. Maya Angelou can be symbolised as the caged bird in the poem. The poet feels like a caged bird because she had no freedom when the African Americans were fighting for equality during the civil rights movement. Maya Angelou is said to have a strong personality as she overcame many adversities and became the famous figure she is

At a point in time in the life of every person, a feeling of being trapped or stuck occurs. The poem “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar represents the speaker’s vast knowledge of the feeling of being enclosed in a place where they are tremendously uncomfortable. The speaker explains the actions of a bird trapped in a small cage and explains the motives behind the actions. The speaker reveals that the song the caged bird sings is not a melody exuberating joy, but a cry begging for freedom.

What is the speaker describing in the first stanza? How does this description help the reader to understand how the caged bird feels? How does the speaker’s identification with the bird’s feelings tell you something about how the speaker feels?

Through the poems “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou it is evident freedom is a desire for all beings, and this is conveyed through symbolism and juxtaposition.. “Sympathy” is a poem that expresses a caged bird’s desire to be free and it’s pain, as well as the poet’s connections to the bird. The poet writes, “I know why the caged bird beats his wing/Till its blood is red on the cruel bars/For he must fly back to his perch and cling/When he fain would be on the bough a-swing” (Dunbar 8-11). The bird symbolizes freedom is a desire for all beings. The bird is a symbol for being trapped, confined, or restricted. The bird tries to escape so desperately to the point where there is blood on the bars. This is an urgent

The theme of social injustice in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird carries through to other literature, such as Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird”. She eloquently writes that “a free bird leaps on the back of the wind, [...] but [a caged bird] stalks down his narrow cage [and] can seldom see through the bars of his rage [...] his wings are clipped and his feet are tied” (Angelou). Angelou’s poem indirectly describes the divide in every society, with the bars of the cage being a metaphor for the inevitable isolation that occurs between the types of people, and the ominous words like “rage” and “stalks” are disturbing compared with the joyful ease of the free bird. Her poem connects to Harper Lee's novel in a way that only literature can. A

These lines show the pain and rage that people, mainly African Americans, went through in the time period this poem was written in. This poem was written from 1872-1906, this was the time period of the after effects of slavery. African Americans went through a tragic time that made them feel like they were not wanted. This feeling goes through many generations that are also expressed in “The Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou. This poem was written from 1928-2014, the time of the civil right movement.

In Paul Dunbar’s poem Sympathy, “ it is not a carol of joy or glee but a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core.” In Caged Bird by Maya Angelou, “The caged bird sings with fearful trill.” This text Sympathy and Caged Bird expose the one singing is more so a cry for help unlike the other which is more of a rattling projection of the voice. These citations prove the birds are different in several

There have been many injustices throughout history, like slavery and discrimination; this is the time where two poems take place; “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird”. Maya Angelou and Paul Laurence Dunbar describe how it is like to be discriminated and separated, through their poems “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird”. However, they did not convene to generate these poems. Dunbar innovated the metaphor of a caged bird and discrimination. In her poem “Caged Bird” debuted in 1969, Maya Angelou writes about a character that is a caged bird who cannot fly and is separated from other birds. Paul Laurence Dunbar also writes of the struggle of a caged bird, who cannot become free even after eating the bars of his cage, in his poem “Sympathy” broached in 1889. Both writers explain the situations of caged birds and their desires to be free. In the poems “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird”, caged birds both sing for freedom, however, one is more confined than the other; “Caged Bird” is more meaningful, because the bird is unable to fly, and is emotionally affected by that.

Maya Angelou poem’s “Caged Bird” is a comparison between the lives of two bird. The free bird is able to live his life freely chasing worms while the caged bird can only sing for freedom. In Beloved, the characters that escape from slavery transform from a caged bird to a free bird. Although, they are free, the memory of the past continues to torment them.

Emily Bronte’s tone throughout the poem is akin to the tone of someone telling a ghost story. It is a dreadfully serious tone, with a specific goal in mind. “The giant trees are bending, Their bare boughs weighed with snow” (Bronte 5-6). Bronte’s use of alliteration keeps the rhythm of the poem hastily flowing, yet, it enforces a suspenseful mood, with an almost menacing tone. The trees are bowing under the weight of the snow, but the speaker is still standing. Another key point in Bronte’s use of tone is her repetition of “I…..cannot go” (Bronte 4, 8, 12). This repetition almost seems hypnotic, like the speaker is chanting these words aloud for motivation, so they will not give up or falter. The speaker has a goal and not even gale force winds and snowstorms will keep them from reaching it. “Clouds beyond clouds above me, wastes beyond wastes below” (Bronte 9-10). At this point, the tone seems exhausted. After fighting the storm for all this time,

Poetry can be described as a form of literature that evokes a particular emotional response or an artistic mindfulness of experience using rhythmic and aesthetic qualities of language. I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou, published 1983, and Sympathy, written by Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1899 both incorporate poetic devices to illustrate the common theme of racism. The profound pathos of racial bias is vividly and emblematically embodied in the poems using symbolism, metaphor and form. I know why the caged bird sings and Sympathy construct their common theme by portraying symbolism with varying effectiveness.

In his poem Paul Laurence Dunbar begins by describing a caged bird that see’s the outside world and longs to get a taste of it. He never mentions a free bird as Maya Angelou does, and keeps the perspective form the captive bird the entire time. In his second stanza, Dunbar’s bird does something different: “I know why the caged bird beats his wing/ Till its blood is red on the cruel bars” (“Sympathy” 8-9) Unlike the bird in Angelou’s poem, Dunbar’s attempts to escape his confinements. This is the main difference between these two works: While Dunbar’s bird tries to free himself, Angelou’s only cries out to a deaf world. However, one must also recognize that after the bird in Sympathy beats his wings and fails to fly, he sings out with the same plea as

Dunbar utilizes the analogy of caged bird in his poem “Sympathy” to expose the emotions and struggles of enslaved African Americans to achieve freedom. He begins his poem by describing the free bird singing when “sun is bright and first bud opens” to portray the beauty of landscape. However, the beauty turns into sadness when the poet states "I know what the caged bird feels, alas" which depicts a tone of sadness. This contrast between a free bird and caged bird initiates the losses of caged bird. It cannot go out and experience the freedom under the open sky. It struggles with physical constrain “till its blood is red on the cruel bars” helps visualize the intensity of struggle the bird is experiencing to gain his freedom to go where he desires, and to be with those who give him happiness. This struggle is similar of African American who tried to rebel in hopes of gaining their freedoms, but all resulted in vain. Their wounds, just like the caged bird, are “old, old scars” emphasizes that African Americans