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

Dunbar was born at the end of the romantic period on June 27, 1872, in Dayton, Ohio. Both of Dunbar parents 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 a Newspaper. Later on, after graduating from high school, Dunbar was not allowed to attend college, so he became an elevator operator where 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 their poems ‘The Cage Bird’ and ‘Sympathy’. In comparison, both Bronte and Dunbar use form, language, and symbolism in their lyric poems.

Lyric poems allow 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 uses 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 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

open.

Finally both the poets use symbolism in their writing to convey their personal messages. The definition of symbolism is a person, place, thing, or event that represents or stands for something else. Bronte use two major symbolisms in her poem ‘The Cage Bird’. The first symbol Bronte uses is the bird. For instance the bird first starts out as a just a bird, but then later on in the poem the bird represent her in the end. Some examples “It sees that day’s long sunshine glow;” (Bronte 2) the “it” is what represent the cage bird. Then Bronte writes “Give we the hills our equal prayer;” (Bronte 5) the “we” is what represents her and the bird now. The second symbol Bronte use is nature. Bronte use nature to reflect was she seeks in life. Bronte write one line that really show how she wants to be free using nature “Earth’s breezy hills and heaven’s blue sea;” in this line she is taking about the sky.

Dunbar in comparison with Bronte also uses symbolism in his writing. Dunbar uses three major symbols in his poem “Sympathy” the bird, the cage and nature. The first symbol Dunbar uses is the bird. The bird represents the pain and hardship that a person had to go though in at time. “And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars.” (Dunbar 12) in this line the pain and scars are former former slave that was whipped. The next symbol that Dunbar uses is the cage. The cage symbolize the inability to escape from slavery even though African Americans were free in this point in history. For an example “I know why the cage bird beats his wings” (Dunbar 8).”Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;” (Dunbar 9). The last symbol that is uses is nature. “When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; when the wind stirs soft though the springing grass, An like river flows like stream of glass;” (Dunbar 3-4). Dunbar write these lines to show the things that an African American man could not active in this time but want it more than anything.

In conclusion, even though these two poets are completely different in the way they were raised, race, time they were born and even sex. They still have a lot in common in their writing styles. Both Bronte and Dunbar use lyric poems to express their deep desire for freedom. They also use form, language and symbolism to get there massages a cross.