Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem Sympathy is a poem of hope. Dunbar, the
son of former slaves, must have heard many stories from his parents regarding
the malicious treatment they had to suffer through while they were slaves. Yet,
one can also imagine that Dunbar’s parents would have told him about how they
held on to hope that one day they would be free. Dunbar displays this in the image
of a caged bird, though its wings are bloody and bruised and body sore the bird
is still able to perch on its swing and sing a beautiful song. Dunbar tells his
audience that the bird is not singing out of joy, on the contrary it is singing
plea from his heart to be free to fly over the grass and enjoy the freedom it
longs for. Dunbar references the bird sending a plea to heaven which may
indicate that his parents hope, during their times as slaves, was found in God.
Dunbar uses a structure of poetry that consists of three stanzas which are
seven lines long and contain a rhyme pattern of abaabaa and is filled with
imagery that allows the reader to not just have sympathy for the bird but to
become empathetic with what the bird is experiencing.
Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar
http://www.potw.org/archive/potw219.html
Leonard E. Nathan’s Potato Eaters uses eating potatoes,
something everyone has done, to bring the reader into a time of his past.
Potatoes take him back to a time when he was poor, grateful to have what they
had, yet bored of the same thing and wanting more, not just in food but in
life. The author has now moved on in life, yet something so simple as a potato
takes him back to childhood and makes him grateful for not being in that place
anymore, yet saddened because he can never go back to that time outside of
memories. Dunbar uses his imagery as a sign of hope, while Nathan uses his a
means to reminisce. They both use imagery that allows the reader to be drawn in
to what they are feeling by using sights and experiences that many can relate
to, seeing a caged bird sing and eating a plain boring potato.
Potato Eaters by Leonard E. Nathan
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