Paul Laurence Dunbar Sympathy Essay

Maya Angelou is a leader by example, she sets the standard by her actions and the stories she tells teaches the audience a lesson. Majority of her work is to inform us of the past and she wants us to learn from her experiences in life; she is a life teacher. The purpose of this poem was to inform us of the history of our country. The poem is titled “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and her purpose of writing this is to teach the reader why the caged bird sings. Maya Angelou wants to put the reader in her shoes to get the ultimate experience of racial inequality but instead by taking the role of a caged bird or a free bird.

     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

In Sympathy, a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the narrator speaks of his feelings that sympathize with how a caged bird feels and why he does what he does in his cage. The author uses style to convey the theme of oppression and imprisonment and the tone of pain and agony through the use of imagery, diction, and repetition.

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.

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.

The poems “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou are both poems that speak on the issues of the mistreatment of African Americans, and how these challenges were created simply by the color of one’s skin and overcome. While the poems “Mother To Son” and “ Dreams” by Langston Hughes refer to the hopes of African Americans for a better standard of living, and the consequences of departing from these dreams of bettering themselves. This comparison of these four poems is important because all four aim to better society for African Americans, and inform the population struggles that they maybe be able to relate, and provide them with the inspiration to keep pushing forward. These poems explain why the desire for equality was so important to African americans at this time, and what they had to go through to get it. I believe that these poems are all used as methods of expression, information, as well as rebellion against the racial in injustice that was suffered for so long.

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.

In Maya Angelou’s poem, “Caged Bird”, She explains how a bird is trapped inside of a cage and can not escape from thick metal bars that hold it back. It imagines and signs of having freedom. People believe this is about a bird, but what if it isn’t. I believe that this is talking about a person who can’t make the decision if they want to keep fighting to do free.The bird can’t decide if it wants to fight to soon wear the bars of the cage down so it can finally fly away aswell or to give up and use its voice and

In Maya Angelou’s I know why the caged Bird Sings Maya goes from being a very young and sporadic girl to a loving and nurturing mother. Throughout Maya’s life she goes through many trials and tribulations. By finding refuge and strength in her family she surpasses racism, rape, and displacement issues.

When analyzing, “Sympathy,” Dunbar comprehends himself with the caged bird at the beginning and end of each stanza with the phrase, I know. While observing the bird, Dunbar shows sympathy for the caged bird by understanding how the bird copes with the constant maltreatment. Dunbar endures the bird’s pain as the bird admires the landscape ahead imagining how it would feel to beat his wings without the discomfort of the cage, but continues to do so anyways to

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.

However, in the poem “Caged Bird” Maya Angelou characterizes the free and caged bird as, one bird symbolizing imprisonment and limitations while the other symbolizes freedom, which further develops the theme of inequality. The line “And dares to claim the sky” shows how unaware the free bird is and further develops the idea of its freedom. This piece of evidence shows how unaware the free bird is by exaggerating the extent of its freedom compared to the caged bird. In

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

Angelou’s poem “I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings” expresses the idea that freedom is a natural state and knowledge of this fact cannot be rid of by any amount of oppression, limitation or confinement from different opportunities. The poem contrasts a