Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The poem Sympathy by Paul Lawrence Du...

 

The poem Sympathy by Paul Lawrence Dunbar is about him being trapped in society. He is comparing himself to the caged bird by saying he knows how the cage bird feels. In the first stanza, the bird is noticing all these happy and joyful sights and that everything is good. Suddenly in the second stanza, the bird is feeling trapped and feels that he needs to get out so he tries to break down the barriers that are restricting him. The mood is swung in a jolting fashion into misery and despair. He figures out he can’t escape so he resolves the situation by praying to the heavens for better days.


 


            There were many literary devises in this poem. One stood out for me though, “… a prayer that he sends from his hearts deep core, but a plea, that upwards to Heaven he fling.” This literary devise is a form of personification. Personification is when an animal is given human characteristics. Usually praying is a human quality but the bird is praying so it is personification. Many key words filled this poem. Caged is very important because it sets a curtain concept/ universal theme in the poem because of the eerie and broad imagination that goes with that word. Without this word, the poem would have a completely different direction to it. The poem might have had a happy mood to it.


 


            This poem was connecting all over the place! There was connection between the first two lines of the second stanza and the fifth line of the second stanza. “ Caged bird beats his wing; till its blood is red on the cruel bars…” and “ a pain still throbs in the old, old scars…” These two quotes connect because the bird would beat it’s wings against the bars until it started to bleed and the other quote (that was later in the poem), states that he is suffering from the old scars.....


 

           

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