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Poetry Analysis

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, 5
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 10
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, 15

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 hearts deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings 20
I know why the caged bird sings!
Born on June 27, 1872, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African-American poets to gain national
recognition. His parents Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar were freed slaves from Kentucky. His parents
separated shortly after his birth, but Dunbar would draw on their stories of plantation life throughout his writing
career. By the age of fourteen, Dunbar had poems published in the Dayton Herald. While in high school he
edited the Dayton Tattler, a short-lived black newspaper published by classmate Orville Wright.

Despite being a fine student, Dunbar was financially unable to attend college and took a job as an elevator
operator. In 1892, a former teacher invited him to read his poems at a meeting of the Western Association of
Writers; his work impressed his audience to such a degree that the popular poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote
him a letter of encouragement. In 1893, Dunbar self-published a collection called Oak and Ivy. To help pay the
publishing costs, he sold the book for a dollar to people riding in his elevator.

Later that year, Dunbar moved to Chicago, hoping to find work at the first Worlds Fair. He befriended
Frederick Douglass, who found him a job as a clerk, and also arranged for him to read a selection of his poems.
Douglass said of Dunbar that he was the most promising young colored man in America. By 1895, Dunbars
poems began appearing in major national newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times. With the
help of friends, he published the second collection, Majors and Minors (1895).

This recognition helped Dunbar gain national and international acclaim He also brought out a new
collection, Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896). Dunbar received a clerkship at the Library of Congress in
Washington, DC, and shortly thereafter he married the writer Alice Ruth Moore. While living in Washington,
Dunbar published a short story collection, Folks from Dixie, a novel entitled The Uncalled, and two more
collections of poems, Lyrics of the Hearthside and Poems of Cabin and Field (1899). He also contributed lyrics
to a number of musical reviews.

In 1898, Dunbars health deteriorated, [but] Dunbar continued to write poems. His collections from this time
include Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903), Howdy, Howdy, Howdy (1905), and Lyrics of Sunshine and
Shadow (1905). These books confirmed his position as Americas premier black poet. Dunbars steadily
deteriorating health caused him to return to his mothers home in Dayton, Ohio, where he died on February 9,
1906, at the age of thirty-three.