Sympathy By Emily Bronte And Dunbar Analysis

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 were 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 period of time. Paul Laurence

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 in 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 is mental images, figures, or likenesses of 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. Similar to Bronte, Dunbar also uses imagery to convey his desire for freedom. In ‘Sympathy’ a person can see Dunbar is portraying repetition the saying “I know what the cage bird feels” though-out his poem to get the message that he and the bird want to be free. Another imagery that Dunbar use is “When the first bird sings and the first bud opes” (Dunbar 5). You can gets the feeling that they are out in nature and can hear the bird sing or see the flower bud