Analyzing The Poem 'Sympathy'

288 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay for figurative language

Sympathy, is a poem about someone or something being trapped. It’s about being stuck in something and feeling sad. This poem is still relevant to date because with the problems in the world and in our personal lives, some people feel stuck. When we feel trapped , most likely we’ll feel sad, angry, and more mixed emotions. It’s about the intensity of being in pain and feeling stuck. It's about wishing and hoping for glee but not reaching that, due toward feeling trapped. I know why the Caged Bird Sings, is about being trapped with issues that no one can fix, unless someone were to help you. It is relevant now as people all around need help. “The free bird thinks of another breeze”, is you thinking of something better in your life that could

Show More
Related

  • Poem Analysis: The Case By Tim Seibles

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.

    Read More

  • Writing Techniques for Sympathy in "The Bridge" by Jessie Kesson

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bridge, by Jessie Kesson is a short story which describes the thoughts and feelings of a character that faces up to a challenge of crossing a bridge with a gang that he tags along with. In this essay I will describe these thoughts and feelings that make you sympathise with character and show how the writer has used different writing techniques to show this.

    Read More

  • Analyzing Sharon Olds 'Late Poem To My Father'

    1334 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Late Poem to My Father” by Sharon Olds, the speaker, who is likely a stand-in for Olds herself, takes us through the relationship her father had with her grandfather. She then relates this to her relationship with her father. Starting with the title, the word “Late” could suggest that the father has died or it could suggest how she didn’t fully value her father’s love until recently. The poem is written in free verse with no particular pattern or rhyme scheme. There are no stanza breaks, but there is a lot of enjambment throughout the poem. Olds’s syntax and placement of enjambment compliments the poem the whole way through. The first word of the poem is “Suddenly”, as if she hadn’t thought of her father in a long time. The poem can be

    Read More

  • Antigone And In The Time Of The Butterflies

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    Paul Laurence Dunbar depicts this idea in his well-known poem “Sympathy” (one of my favorite poems!), describing a caged bird that longs for freedom. Dunbar establishes his knowledge of the bird’s feelings, his desire for freedom (his motive of rebellion). Dunbar draws empathy from the audience as he describes the bird’s integrity in the descriptive lines: “I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars.” The caged bird goes to a dangerous extent to be heard, as he bleeds on his prison bars, for he is willing to do anything for his freedom— this shows his integrity and confidence in his values. Dunbar finishes off the poem with powerful lines: “But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea that upward heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings!” The caged bird is depicted as battered, bruised, and beaten from his violent rebellion— praying as his last chance of freedom. The bird’s belief in its virtuous rebellion justifies the revolt, as we see the bird’s constant persistency, even as the mutiny is demoted to prayer.

    Read More

  • Self-Pity's Closet Poem Analysis

    199 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the poem “Self-Pity’s Closet” by Michelle Boisseu, the speaker’s main conflict is self pity, and the author used diction and imagery to show the effects that the conflict has on the speaker. Phrases like “secret open wounds,” (3) show the effects with the word “secret” meaning pain that others are not noticing, which leads up to the speaker getting hurt, but no one indicating to notice it. Another effect is the speaker becoming more self concerning and thinking more about her negatives. This effect portrays through “night raining spears of stars,” (19) because night tends to be the time when people have the most thoughts about themselves and also the word “spears” make up an image of pain piercing through the speaker. “Tangy molasses of

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron Essay

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    The title to me is almost ironic. In Caged Bird it talks about limited freedom in the sense that a bird that is caged cannot do the one thing it was made for, to fly. Caged Bird is almost a whole reference to how there are many limitations on freedom. I believe each stanza represents a different “time” for the bird. In the first stanza there are many action words used along with the second and third stanzas. In the first stanza it talks about how the bird is free. The author uses action words like, leaps, floats, dips, and dares. The first stanza states, “A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky”(Caged Bird). In context I interpreted this stanza as, a bird jumps onto the wind and is gliding to where the wind may take him. Also that the bird can fly whenever he wants, the sun is orange at dusk and dawn, therefore the bird chooses when to fly. In the second stanza it states, “But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing”(Caged Bird). I think the second stanza is in reference to the time that the bird is in the cage, or a rough

    Read More

  • Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    While reading, I felt a sense of sadness for the caged bird, as its undeniable determination was persistent and valiant. Along with the message of the poem, I also appreciated Angelou’s unique sense of “unstructured verse” and her non-traditional poetic approach. It is clear that the caged bird represents African Americans and the free bird represents the white population, however, the poem is well written which sends this implied message of African-American suppression in a poetic, yet clear,

    Read More

  • Sympathy By Paul Laurence Dunbar Literary Devices

    462 Words  | 1 Pages

    Furthermore, Maya Angelou’s poem, ‘Caged Bird,’ there is a heavy usage of imagery to contrast the lives of the free and caged bird. For example, the first stanza includes vivid details about how free and easygoing the free bird’s life is. The text includes, “A free bird leaps/ on the back of the wind/ and floats downstream…” “...and dips his wing/ in the orange sun rays/ and dares to claim the sky.” Evidently, this bird can openly travel through the wonders of the world, such as streams and beautiful skies; there seems to not be a care in the world. However, the reader gets a peek into the life of the caged bird, who has a multitude of challenges and sorrow. These circumstances are first shown in the second stanza, but there is a more intense picture in stanza five, “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams/ his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream/ his wings are clipped and his feet are tied/ so he opens his throat to sing.” There is an obvious switch in mood that is projected from the author, as the caged bird has lost its dreams and had many obstacles preventing it from breaking

    Read More

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Storm the Battlefronts

    523 Words  | 2 Pages

    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  Maya Angelou's novel is a classic tale of growing up black in the American South in the 1930s and 40s. Even though Marguerite's and her brother Bailey's childhood and early youth are probably far from typical for the average black family of that time, the book nonetheless can be read as a parable of what it meant and still means to be a black person in an overwhelmingly white society. The story is told from a "black" point of view and is thus a more "politically correct" representation of race relationship and prejudice than Harper Lee's equally famous To Kill a Mockingbird.

    Read More

  • Sympathy And I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

    262 Words  | 1 Pages

    The two poems “Sympathy” and “I know why the caged bird sings” are similar. They are similar because they both talk about a caged bird. They are both about people comparing themselves to the bird, in “Sympathy” it is referring to the bird being caged because the person that is comparing themselves isn’t as free as they wish they were. It was the same concept in “I know why the caged bird sings” because the bird is caged and the person feels caged as well so they are comparing themselves to the bird. In “Sympathy” it is talking about the bird singing and hoping that one day it can be free and it is the same with the person they just sing and have hopes that one day they can be free. In “I know why the caged bird sings” it says “ But a caged

    Read More

  • Lynyrd Skynyrd's Song Freebird

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of my favorite songs they produced was Free bird. I have two ideas of what I think this song means. The first one is that I think it is about a guy who is leaving his girlfriend. He says, I must be traveling on now because there’s too many places I’ve got to see. It seems to me that he wants to go because there is other things he wants to do. He wants to be a free man and get away. He also says, that if I stay with you girl things just couldn’t be the same. He states that he is free as a bird now and this bird you can not change. The way I kind of understand it is that maybe he has a problem and she don’t like it and wants him to change, but he knows he cant. I think he comes to believe that the only way to solve the problem is if he just leaves and lives his own life as he wants to. I believe that goes to show why he says he is a free bird that she can not change. Another way I interpreted it, was as a one-night stand and he was talking about what would happen the next day when he has to leave. I think he might like her, but cant change. By changing I think he cant just settle down and be with someone he loves. I think he is too into the one-night stand thing and cant change his lifestyle be dedicated to having a girl friend.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye: Poem Analysis

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    As one grows up and experiences the taste of life, opening one’s eyes to both negative and positive aspects of the world, it is common that one starts to lose their innocence little by little throughout one’s journey. The title of novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1952) by J. D. Salinger, signifies the desires of Holden Caulfield, the narrator, to preserve innocence, and the allusion to the Robert Burns poem “Comin Thro’ the Rye” further emphasizes his desires and also represents his innocence.

    Read More

  • Sympathy And Caged Bird Comparison

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many different ways someone is considered to be free, the direct definition is to enjoy personal rights or liberty, this can be interpreted in different forms. In their poems “Caged Bird”, and “Sympathy”, Maya Angelou and Paul Laurance Dunbar use caged birds to represent what it means to be free. They both use birds to convey a better image for the reader. Birds are used in both poems of “Caged Bird” and “Sympathy” as a central image because the caged birds are metaphors for true freedom and hope.

    Read More

  • The Theme of Freedom in Poetry

    2586 Words  | 6 Pages

    I chose these three poems because the subject matter appealed to me and I believe that the poems convey their meaning very effectively. Upon researching the poems, I discovered that Caged Bird was in fact inspired by Sympathy, which accounts for the similarities in language and imagery, as outlined below. All three poems deal with the subject of freedom using the imagery of birds; On Liberty and Slavery is narrated as a human plea for freedom, and makes reference to birds in that context, whereas Caged Bird and Sympathy both use the imagery of caged birds to explore the theme of loss of freedom. The symbolism of birds is used to depict freedom, as birds are essentially without constraints; in comparison to the limitations of humans, they have limitless possibilities. When a bird is caged, however, it loses that potential and is restricted not by its own limitations, but the limits set by another.

    Read More

  • Comparing Langston Hughes And Maya Angelou's Poems

    2518 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the “Caged Bird” Angelou’s comparison to the caged bird was African-Americans in the society they were living in. She symbolized the bird with African-Americans experiences. In the second stanza the poem states “But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing”. This is comparison to African-Americans in their society. When African- Americans were enslaved they use to sing songs to uplift their spirits because that’s all they could do. They were physically bound and mentally brain-washed. The songs was there way of showing they still had fight left in them. In the fourth stanza it states “The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn and he names the sky his own”. This is saying the while African-Americans were enslaved and oppressed they watched Caucasians be free and do as they pleased. Although at the time African-Americans never experienced freedom they yearned for it. They knew it had to be better then what they were enduring. Racism is considered the cage around the caged bird, and it means not getting treated fairly with jobs, medical treatment, and even get

    Read More

More about Analyzing The Poem 'Sympathy'

Open Document