

Dunbar’s Life Revealed In His Poem “Sympathy”

1019 words - 5 pages

In the poem “Sympathy”, Paul Laurence Dunbar expresses his frustrations at the
limitations that his race, culture, and society put on his talent and aspirations through metaphors and word choice. “Sympathy” is a poem not only about a caged bird but about Dunbar’s life in general. Dunbar desires freedom and writes as if no living person could ever dwell peacefully in captivity. The bird is a symbolic representation of Dunbar’s own grievances and his own longing to be able to experience the true beauty of the world around him. It also shows, according to the poet’s background, the trials and struggles he endured. Dunbar’s poem reflects in a tragic way, the horrors of captivity in his life.
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His metaphor of a cage is a sense of entrapment or imprisonment, restricting him the opportunities whites receive. Dunbar was an elevator operator, possibly feeling trapped in the booth only to get a glimpse of sunlight when the doors opened and watching the world around him move freely. Myra McMurry suggests he is being “institutionalized…denying his true identity” (106) as a Black Poet. He is forced to sell his writings in the elevator for a dollar in order to become established (University of Dayton). A scar becomes a part of Dunbar’s life. He writes, “old old scars” (Dunbar 12) which suggests the reality of remembrance of African American struggling to overcome slavery. His scars, skin color, are visible and have made him self-conscious of his race. His knowledge of slavery was secondhand, but he is very aware of discrimination firsthand. The scars become a metaphor of painful pasts and a reflection of his life expressing the defeat of racism.
Dunbar’s specific word choice creates a picture of both freedom and slavery in his life.
The poem “Sympathy” uses the images of freedom with words like sun…wind…river…stream” (Dunbar 2-4) becoming a beautiful image of nature. This descriptive writing figuratively paints a picture describing the aspect of a scene allowing the reader to experience the image. Dunbar represents the smallest types of freedoms as being restricted from him. In the 1890s, “public facilities were segregated along with freedom of safety from being lynched” (O’Malley). He is a notable writer but is held back because of his race. When speaking of Dunbar as an African American writer, Langston Hughes replied “Dunbar as an example of the hardships and obstacles confronted by a black writer” (Li 388). Dunbar uses words like “pain…bruised…sore…beats” (Dunbar 12, 14, 16) to present to the reader the torments he has endured waiting to be truly free. He feels as if the world has treated him unfairly and unjustly, by limiting him into a so...

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