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Paul Laurence Dunbar Sympathy

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How does it feel to have no freedom? No freedom to do anything at the palm of your hand. No freedom to be what you want to be. Isn’t is sad? Isn’t it miserable? I could only imagine what it feels like for those who have suffered from confinement of the society. Sympathy, by Paul Laurence Dunbar is one of the poems that captures the emotions toward the miseries of being in a surround cage, not being able to do anything because of having no power or freedom. On this poem, not only can we sympathize on the speaker, but also on those to whom this poem was written to. Learning about the author, he is an African-American poet whose poems relate to the struggles of African-Americans for civil rights. The author of the poem wants to show the readers what it feels to have no freedom, how much suffering people with no freedom have to go through, and how people manage to cope with the sufferings. On the poem, Dunbar used a “caged bird” to symbolize …show more content…

As mentioned earlier, the bird sings because it wants to ask for help to be free. Furthermore, the bird sings as a prayer to be sent to heaven, thinking that maybe, someone might hear its plea. One may think that the author is making an effort here for the readers to recognize that this is how people with no freedom cope for the sufferings they are going through, just like the bird does when it is inside the cage. For instance, when a person is in so much pain, may it be physically or emotionally, they tend to cope with it by praying deeply and asking sincerely for miracle that hopefully, the sufferings end soon. Moreover, this is might be the only way for the person to find peace in his or her heart regardless of how much pain he or she is suffering from. Additionally, this might also be the way in order to gain strength to keep fighting for the freedom that a person has been dreaming to

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