Comparing Two Poems

The Tale of Two Poets
The romantic era was originally from Europe at the end of the 18th century. During this time nature and beauty was most importance to express their inner feelings. Poet Emily Bronte was born in Thornton in Yorkshire, England, on July 30, 1818, in the romantic era. She was the third child born out of six kids to Patrick and Maria Branwell Bronte. Her father Patrick use to be a teacher but became a minister after their mother pasted away from tuberculosis. Bronte grew up in the Haworth in the bleak West Riding of Yorkshire her whole life. When she finally went to school Bronte could not stand to be in large crowds of people, so she could not leave home for every long periods of time. Paul Laurence Dunbar was born at the end of the romantic period on June 27, 1872, in Dayton, Ohio. Both of Dunbar parent were former slaves. Dunbar’s mother enjoyed teaching him how to read. In addition Dunbar was also the only African American student in his high school also being the editor of Newspaper. Later on after graduating from high school Dunbar was not allowed to attend college so he became an elevator operator were he sold his books for a dollar to people who would read it. Even though these two poets are every different in their lives they still have a lot in common in there poems ‘The

Cage Bird’ and ‘Sympathy’. In comparison both Bronte and Dunbar use form, language, and symbolism in their lyric poems.

Lyric poems allows both poets to express their deep feeling of desire for freedom.

The definition of a lyric poem is a relatively short poem in which the speaker expresses his or her thoughts deep personal and feeling in the first person. In ‘The Cage Bird’ Emily Bronte uses lyric poem to express her deep desire to be free. You can feel the sadness and her desire to leave as you read the poem. For example “In unexhausted woe.” (Bronte 4) in this line you can feel she is in deep despair. In another line Bronte write “How gladly would I watch it soar,” (Bronte 10) in which case she is talking about the bird and her soul leaving the

earth.

In comparison to Bronte, Dunbar also use lyric poem to express his deep desires for freedom in first person. In the first line of ‘Sympathy’ “I know what the cage bird feels, alas!” (Dunbar 1) one can see and feel the great sadness by the way he put the explanation point at the end. In addition to that Dunbar also writes “When he fain would be on the bough a-swing,” the bird can only cling to his perch inside his cage when he would much rather be free to swing on a tree branch outside it.

On top of lyric poems Bronte and Dunbar use language in their poems to present their respective message. The kind of language they use is imagery which are mental images, figures, or likenesses to things. In ‘The Cage Bird ‘Bronte use imagery to convey her desires for freedom and her fear of people. For example “And like myself alone, wholly alone,” (Bronte 1) in this line one can image how alone she felt.