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Laurence Paul Dunbar |
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Sympathy
Sympathy I know what the caged
bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the winds stirs
soft through the springing grass, And the river flows like
a stream of glass; When the first bud
opes, And the faint perfume
from its chalice steals- I know what the caged
bird feels!
I know why the caged
bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back
to his perch and cling When he fain would be
on the bough a-swing; And the pain still
throbs in the old, old scars And they pulse again
with a keener sting- I know why he beats his
wing! I know why the caged
bird sings, ah me, When his wing is
bruised and his bosom sore,-
When he beats his bars
and he would be free; It is not a carol of
joy or glee, But player that he
sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea, that upward
to Heaven he flings- I know why the caged
bird sings! ANALISYS: One of the motives that Dunbar sought to write this poem is to express the
oppression of being a slave and the miseries of such. Dunbar feels sympathy for
this bird in the cage because he shares the bird feelings. He understands his
pain and his longing for an unreachable dream. On his first stanza he uses imagery
and metaphor to explain the bird longing of freedom. He says that he knows what
the bird feels because he is relating the bird captivity with his own. By evoking the yearning of such as beautiful landscapes,
it gives the impression of examples on our daily life such as a starving man looking forward his next meal in a busy restaurant
or a teenager who is not allow to go to her friend party, decides to escape but she is caught in process.
However in the third stanza Dunbar shift his emotions to different scenery. He point out that the bird is not singing because
of joy but because of the pain of its injuries. These injuries are not only physical but also psychological. These psychological
pains come from the mourning of dead dreams and the dark future in the horizon. As the bird and the slave are in the same
situation, they both have something in common; the fight for a better future. Although this poem is only taken to view the bird and the slave’s situation,
it is also applicable to the suffering of our everyday lives such as the criticism of the society, laws and restriction in
our workplace, schools or city, or parental restrictions. We are all living in a cell; cells made by oneself or someone else.
The only difference is that we are the designers of our own future. We have a mind of our own to make changes and decide whether
or not we want it or not. These qualities are the one that set us apart from the bird in the cage. Enter main content here |
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