"Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

 "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

It fits into my unit because, like TKaM, this poem describes racism and its effect on those who are oppressed. Paul Laurence Dunbar was an African American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who lived through slavery, racism, and segregation. This poem is considered to be an extended metaphor where, throughout the entire poem, Dunbar is comparing himself and all African Americans at that time with a caged bird that does not have the freedom to enjoy nature or to fly like all other birds, or white people.

For homework connect this poem to courage and journal how Dunbar demonstrates such a trait by simply writing the poem. Are there risks involved in this? I could ask them how this poem connects to the characters in TKaM.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46459/sympathy-56d22658afbc0

Sympathy BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, And the river flows like a stream of glass; When the first bird sings and 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 a 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 a prayer 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! Paul Laurence. Dunbar, "“Sympathy.”" from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, ) Source: Twentieth-Century American Poetry (2004)