An Interpretation of Paul Laurence Dunbar's Poem Sympathy and We Wear the Mask

Paul Laurence Dunbar, dispatches the cold troubles of African Americans in the lyrical poem, "We Wear the Mask." In this poem, Dunbar links imagery, rhythm, rhyme, and word choice to in order to institute a connection to the reader. From reading the poem, one can infer that Mr. Dunbar is speaking in general, of the misery that many people keep concealed under a grin that they wear very well. But if one were to go further and take the time to research Mr. Dunbar’s selection of this piece and the era of which this poem was written, one would come to understand that this poem focuses entirely on Paul Laurence Dunbar’s viewpoints on racial prejudice and the struggle for equality for the African-American’s of his time period. Though this

Deep in the forest of Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the caged bird sings on. The singing slaves in Douglass’s narrative are the caged birds of Maya Angelou’s famous poem, filling the air around them with desire: desire for a freedom so far out of reach—for “things unknown but longed for still.”

Dually Randall and Paul Laurence Dunbar are two African American writers living during the early twentieth century. These men did not know each other, however, they both encountered the same hardship of being an African American living before the civil rights movement. Both men use poems that emphasize sound, structure and imagery to express what they experienced during that harsh time. A careful analysis of “We Wear the Mask” and “Ballad of Birmingham” expose that the shadows cast on their skin has a lasting impression.

The lyric poem “We wear the mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a poem about the African American race, and how they had to conceal their unhappiness and anger from whites. This poem was written in 1895, which is around the era when slavery was abolished. Dunbar, living in this time period, was able to experience the gruesome effects of racism, hatred and prejudice against blacks at its worst. Using literary techniques such as: alliteration, metaphor, persona, cacophony, apostrophe and paradox, Paul Dunbar’s poem suggests blacks of his time wore masks of smiling faces to hide their true feelings.

In the poem “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Dunbar also explains how the slaves sang songs to relieve their pain and misery which was caused by slavery. Dunbar also went through something similar to what Douglass went through when he states, “I know what the caged bird feels.” It’s different when you have been through it yourself, and when you have just heard about it. Experience is the real deal, and once you have, you’re scarred for life as Dunbar states with the help of imagery, “I know why the caged bird beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars.” The use of imagery in this quote helps the readers imagine what the poet is talking about. When you go through all that, all the misery and pain, you need a way to express your emotion and the things you have been through. That’s why the slaves sang their songs, “It’s not a carol of joy and glee, but a prayer that it sends from its heart’s deep core,” stated Dunbar in the poem. In the previous quote he uses invocation to call

The first element our writers used to express their message of wanting to be free is form. The narrator for ‘The Caged Bird” feels alone and wishes to be able to snatch the chains that keep her tied down. Also, in the poem “Sympathy” by Dunbar as well an in “The Caged Bird” both authors used a bird to symbolize the captivity and aspiration for freedom. Both poets wrote their piece in lyric form because of obvious reasons. A lyric poem is defined as a poem that expresses personal and emotional feelings. Writing poems with this form shows the amount of deep emotion that the narrator feels toward this work. In addition, both authors wrote their poems in iambic pentameter to make the poem sound like a natural flow of speech to really show the deep feelings the poets are feeling.

Paul Laurence Dunbar is African-American poet who lived from in the late 1880s to the early 1900s. During his life, Dunbar wrote many poems, in both dialect and standard english. However, many of his poems are considered controversial now, due to negative racial stereotypes and dialect. Currently, some believe that Dunbar’s poetry perpetuates harmful stereotypes such as use of dialect; while others believe that it helps break racial stereotypes through the portrayed emotions. Dunbar’s dialect poetry is helpful for African-Americans, because it accurately depicts the experience of African Americans and humanizes them.

The bird then returns to his former place in the cage, the speaker emphasizing the pain in the bird’s “old, old scars”, imparting that the bird has attempted to escape in this manner multiple times in the past. From the line in which the speaker says “And they pulse again with a keener sting,” which refers to the bird’s scars, the reader can assume that the “keener sting” is a fire in the bird’s wings fueled by determination to achieve freedom, and that the bird will continue attempting to escape relentlessly. The speaker states that he “knows why he beats his wing”, meaning that he knows the forces that can drive a creature to harm themselves in the process of trying to achieve something, and he has come in contact with those forces in his life.

In these lines from Derek Walcott’s “A Far Cry from Africa,” the speaker emphasizes the natural human tendencies to “inflict pain.” Similarly, in his poem, “Sympathy,” Paul Dunbar explores pain from the point of view of a bird being trapped in a cage. It flaps its wings and tries to escape but it cannot. The bird symbolizes an African American bound by slavery and unable to escape. On the other hand, in Claude McKay’s poem “The Harlem Dancer,” the dancer feels as if

In the two poems both show the caged bird of the black race. “ But a bird that stalks/down his narrow cage/can seldom see through/ his bars of rage…”(M.A 8-11). Although the message is very subtle, it means that blacks are the caged bird

The rhetorical effect of this poem is it emphasizes that African Americans have to wear a mask because the people around them don’t let them show their true feelings. Before the Civil Rights Movement, blacks had no voice and could not speak their opinions. The rhetorical devices do very well to help meet the rhetorical

Dunbar opens his poem with “We wear the mask,” to draw in any type of

The poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou tells the story of two birds: one bird has the luxury of freedom and the second bird lives its life caged and maltreated by an unknown tyrant. Maya Angelou wrote this poem during the Civil Rights Era, the period when black activists in the 1950’s and 1960’s fought for desegregation of African Americans. This poem parallels the oppression that African Americans were fighting during this time period. In “Caged Bird”, Angelou builds a strong contrast that shows the historical context of discrimination and segregation through the use of mood, symbolism, and theme.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” depicts two birds which are used as metaphors to express the state in which the two classes of people live. In one description the poem describes the standard of living of a bird of privilege which alludes to the lives of whites. Then it describes caged birds whom of which are crying out for freedom, and are meant to represent African Americans during this time. It describes the feeling of being trapped and calling out for

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