Sympathy (analysis)

Sympathy (analysis) 

The poem Sympathy was written by the afro-american writer Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906). He was born in Dayton, Ohio and both of his parents where African slaves. He is one of the most important writers, among american literature, because many people consider him as the first afro-american poet. Sympathy, one of his masterpieces, was published in 1899; year in which black people where involved in constant fights for their rights.

This poem can be considered as an extended metaphor because the writer used the reality of a caged bird to compare it to the reality that many oppressed black people have to deal with in the USA: "I know what the caged bird feels, alas" (stanza 1, line 1) We can clearly see that  the author is comparing himself with the bird and is trying to express his feelings by saying that he knows what it feels to be in a cage. In this case, the cage refers to all the racism, segregation and oppression that there was around those ages.

We can see that there are lots of cases of imagery that the author uses to give as a picture of what is happening. In this descriptions there are two main places that are being described: one is the in side of the cage and the other one is the outside of the cage. The outside part is described as a beautiful place: "When the sun is bright on the upland slopes, when the wind stirs soft through the springing grass And the river flows like a stream of glass" (stanza 1, lines 2-4) This part gives us the impression that the outside is a beautiful, bright and pure place; where the sun is shining and birds sing and enjoy the fact of being free. The inside part is not described as explicitly as the outside part but you can still get an image of what it looks like: "I know why the caged bird beats his wing, till its blood is red on the cruel bars," (stanza 2, lines 8-9) In these image we appreciate that the bird is despereate to get out from that horrible place (the cage) and got back to his home, he is so desperate that he harms himself.

Finally, there is a rhythm in our poem. It is a consonant type of rhythm because there are words that are very alike; they are some words like: grass, glass,  bars, scars, swing, sting, etc. This gives the poem a more pleasant melody and it also can transfer emotions and feelings more easily. In the chase for a more melodic poem, the author used alliteration in some parts of the poem like: "When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, When he beats his bars and he would be free" (stanza 3, lines 16-17) In this part the letter "s" is repeated several times and its used to motivate the reader to read faster and making him involve more with the text .

In conclusion, Sympathy is an extended metaphor which was used to describe the feelings that oppressed black people had in those ages. The author used the symbol of a bird to compare it to all the afro-americans. He also used some rhetoric devices like metaphor, imagery, alliteration, etc. to help him express all the feelings, all the images, everything he had in his head; and white them on a piece of paper.