Paul Laurence Dunbar Sympathy

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.

When the wind stirs through the springing grass…/ and the faint perfume from its chalice steals/ the speaker is alluding to his own experience as a black man in post-Civil War America. Dunbar’s parents were both former slaves, his father escaping by serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, moved to Dayton, Ohio which was still racially segregated like the rest of the country. Still, Dunbar attended M street High School that regularly outperformed white students at the opposing schools on standardized tests (JBHE 1). While there’s no real indication that Dunbar’s poetry is resonant of his life, one can see clear intersection between his lyrics and the life he lived. In Sympathy, he wrote eloquently about the pain that the caged bird goes through beating his wings against the bars speaking metaphorically about the generation before him that lived through enslavement.

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

The caged bird cannot fully enjoy nature and can only look and admire the sceneray but not take part in. When Dunbar states “I know what the caged bird feels” he is sympathizing with the bird because African-Americans lived in America but did not fully able to enjoy it, just like the caged bird and spring.

“Sympathy” inspired “I know why the caged bird sings” by stepping up and saying his parents went through slavery. Paul Laurence Dunbar said this because people who’ve been slavery know all about how much you suffer, the pain you go through, the angriness on how much they make you do, and something in your life you”ll never forget. He also inspired her by not being afraid to tell some of his hardest moments in life. Paul gave hints like “i know what the caged bird feels, alas” this means he through stuff like slavery.

To be caged represents to be isolated mentally or even physically by which someone or something is held back against something else. In both poems, sympathy and caged bird, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Maya Angelou portray a bird in a cage which both hope for freedom. These two poems both have a similar purpose of proving that there can still be hope in the harshest times. While both poem’s sympathy and caged bird, both contained hope Caged bird was more meaningful because it showed more hope even though the bird was more blighted and isolated than the bird in sympathy.

In the poem, “Caged Bird”, by Maya Angelou, and the poem “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the authors exemplify feelings of those being discriminated against in the actions and feelings of the birds. The poets make contrasting and comparable stories, that relate in many ways and also contrast in hidden but most important ways as well. The birds in the poems add morals and meaning by being so alike and yet so different.

Within this poem the two opposing birds each symbolise an oppressing issue; segregation. The caged bird sings of freedom, clipped wings and tied feet, refers to the African Americans and their repression due to inequalities. With the writings from an African American woman, the cage is also symbolic, referring to sexism and misogyny- issues predominately present throughout her time. The first stanza, lines 1-7 relates to nature, referring to a ‘free bird’ throughout her poem. She describes this bird as free through the use of actions commonly seen.

The end of the poem when he states,” it’s nice enough to/ make a man/ weep, but I don’t/ weep, do/ you?”, to show that even when he can express his emotion to himself, it is still treated as something prohibited. Although the speaker keeps the bird lock from other people,” I only let him out/ at night sometimes/ when everybody is asleep”, to show he still clings to his sadness and enjoys being able to show it even though he is alone. Instead a cage his heart is used to symbolize a safe where he can keep the bird locked away from becoming lost or destroyed. When he says,” you want to blow my book sales in /Europe? ”, at the time a book written by a man who showed emotion would have had people view him differently. If a male had written a work and did not fit their conventional views then is would have hurt his

‘Caged Bird’ by Angelou makes the audience reconsider the real conditions of the ‘free bird’ and the ‘caged bird’. This contrast between the birds throughout the poem enables her to explore the issues of freedom and isolation in African American society.

The mood of “Caged Bird” changes drastically from stanza to stanza. Angelou’s specific diction choices help to reflect the change from being positive to negative with some elements of hope involved. The parts of the poem involving the free bird provide the reader with a feeling of self government.In contrast, the mood associated with the caged bird is confinment. Despite the negative mood tied to the caged bird there are still elements of hope woven into these stanzas.

These poems relate closely with To Kill a Mockingbird. Both these poems are about someone who does not feel like they can be free in society like Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird. Caged Bird imitates life because it symbolizes how the African Americans in the south the feels locked up, and they can not flourish to their full potential. Likewise Sympathy relates to Caged Bird as they both have a common theme of a hunger for freedom. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson would rather be killed than have the little bits of freedom he has left taken away. This poem expresses the part in all of us that is locked up behind the walls that we call society. These poems relate to life by showing the feelings the authors conveys in their day to day

Ultimately, since Dunbar avoids specifically mentioning blacks and their suffering, with the history of this poem in mind, this poem could stand as a lament on behalf of all of the individuals who were forcefully made to wear a “mask” just as a girl who tries to hide her pregnancy from her parents, or as a boy who

By comparing the two poems I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Sympathy and what both they represent in there poems. I will also be talking about how Sympathy inspired I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. The bird in sympathy is a representation is a slave. By the author saying I know what the caged bird feels he is saying he knows what a slaves go through and what they feel. He knows how a slave would feel because he is son of slaves and his hole poem is about what the experiences that his parents went through and what he saw.

I have experienced what Paul Laurence Dunbar talks about in his poem. I have worn a mask that grins and lies. “We wear a mask that grins and lies.” I don’t always want others to know how I feel. For example, my mother and I had gotten lost on our way home from visiting my sister in college. It was a one lane road surrounded by forest in the middle of the night and the GPS stopped working. We were in the middle of nowhere and I could tell that my mom was freaking out. I could also tell that she was trying to hide her feelings. I put on a brave face and continued to reassure her, and myself for that matter, that we would be fine and that we should keep going. Eventually we made to the highway and we both breathed a sigh of relief. I agree with