An Analysis Of Sympathy, By Paul Laurence Dunbar

Have you ever been a place where you can not leave? You would do everything you possibly can to escape and be freed. The poem “Sympathy” is a poem about a bird who is a poem about who is trapped in a cage. As you read the poem, you begin to understand that there is a deeper meaning to the poem. When the poem was wrote in the 1800s, many African- Americans were in slavery, and the poet wanted others to know how many of them felt. In the poem "Sympathy", by Paul Laurence Dunbar, he tells a story of a bird who is experiencing lack of freedom by using symbolism, figurative language, and imagery.

In the first stanza of the poem the poet displayed sensory imagery. Sensory imagery is the language that appears to a reader’s five senses that includes; sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Dunbar used three of the five which included, sound, smell, and sight. In the beginning of the poem Dunbar utilized sight when he said, “the first bud opes”(5). The poet expresses that the bird sees the first flower bud open. In addition to using sight, the poet also used the imagery sound to express bird chirping; “When the first bird sings”(Dunbar 5). The last sensory imagery Dunbar utilized is the sense of smell. The speaker describes the scent of perfumes declaring, “And the faint perfume from its chalice steals”(Dunbar 6). The scent of the perfume is very mild almost where the scent is unrecognizable.

Immediately, when further reading the poem readers realize the poet has many uses of