An Easy Goin Feller Poem Analysis

Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most influential black poets of the 1980’s. Dunbar is best known for his poems written in dialect. A prime example of Dunbar 's work in Dialect is his poem “An Easy Goin ' Feller”. He was able to expand his audience beyond the black working class to whites as well. He was able to this by making his poems seem more human and easier for his audience to relate to. Dunbar was a self educated poet and publisher with high goals for himself. These goals come to haunt him later on in his life. Critics did not feel the same way he did about blacks, and they criticized his writings for his likings. Him growing up following the civil rights movement influenced his writing tramentisly. Dunbar was the son two former

The first stanza of the poem uses similes and symbols. “When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,” The use of spring when the birds come out and the flowers begin to bloom. Dunbar starting his poem with a landscape of spring is an idea of being released from a confined place in life. This shows the comparison of the person and the bird that both feel trapped unable to do as they wish. Dunbar wants to be freed but isn’t free because of slave laws. Dunbar uses similes to convey his ideas of sorrow and disillusionment. “And the river flows like a stream of glass” Stating that the river flows like a stream of glass is redundant. A stream of glass would not flow like that of a river of water would. His choice of making the stream glass shows that his reflection is not what he wanted it to be at that point in his life, or he feels as though he is irrelevant to others. Dunbar uses end rhyme to give the poem a more song-like feel. His use of rhyme gives the poem a backdrop for all the other literary devices he uses throughout his poem. The rhyme scheme in the first stanza is ABCCBAA. “[I] know how the caged bird feels!” is a use of a symbol. Dunbar is not a caged bird but he feels like he is. In stanza one, Dunbar also uses repetition “When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,/ When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,” Much like rhyme repetition also gives the poem a more lyrical style. Dunbar’s use of literary devices helps him to convey his story of

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Sympathy” brings the pain and desire of freedom out into the open. The reader is forced to witness the agony that slaves had to endure for years. Freedom is the one thing that all living things dream of having. Our bodies are made to endure things that at times we don’t even know we can handle. The adrenaline that pushes and drives us to accomplish our dreams is evident and is shown throughout this poem. Dunbar brings in emotional and physical pain of being trapped and not able to be free to as they please like the whites were allowed to do. This poem reminds readers about the many struggles slaves had to endure throughout their lives from being taken from their families and working until they are dead to the