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Comparing Poems Sympathy And Maya Angelou's Caged Bird

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In two poems “Sympathy” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou talk about a poor bird that is trapped in a cage and wants to be free. It longs for everything that the free bird has but it cannot achieve it. In both of the poems, there is a use of comparisons between freedom and nature. It is also interpreted from the poems that the use of a song is a form of coping for the birds. Both of the birds sing for their freedom and sing through their pain. The two poems “Sympathy” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou are so similar, yet so different. Both of the poems are very similar because they both share a single underlying theme which is Freedom. Both Dunbar and Angelou wrote their poems about a universal concept that individuals will find at some point in their lifetime. These poems show that when one fights for their rights they will face difficulties, but them having hope will help for them to overcome their pain. The birds in “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird” demonstrate that if they get caught up in a trap the birds are still able to fight for what they want. …show more content…

The feelings of the birds and how they go about their lives is a way to show what the caged bird is longing for, but can’t have. In “Sympathy”, the author sympathizes with the bird’s feelings of being caged in rather than talking about what it would be like to be free. The title “Sympathy” is so appropriate for the poem because it really is about how the bird feels and how you can sympathize with the pain and imprisonment the bird feels. There should be no preference over one of the poems. The reason being is that both poems were great at showing that it is freedom that they want and

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The metaphor of the birds also serves to create a sense of movement and tension within the poem, as the birds engage in a battle of wills that reflects the speaker's own struggle for

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”(11-13) This pressure won her, and countless other integrationists, their inherent rights to equality and, eventually, acceptance. Another instance that showcases the impact of freeing the oppressed can be found in the metaphors of the free and caged birds as described by Maya Angelou. Her portrayal of the caged bird against that of the free bird shows a stark contrast that can be eliminated once he is freed. She describes his present state, writing, “The free bird leaps/ on the back of the wind/ and floats downstream/ till the current ends/and dips his wings/ in the orange sun rays/ and dares to claim the sky.// But a bird that stalks/ down his narrow cage/ can seldom see through/ his

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The diary entry of Anne Frank entry and the Caged Bird poem have many similarities and differences in theme, mood, summary, and tone. Anne Frank is a girl during that was alive during the holocaust who writes a diary. The Caged Bird was written by Maya Angelou an African American. The Caged Bird poem is comparing a free powerful bird to a bird in a cage who is oppressed but understands and desires freedom and is hopeful.

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Angelou and Dunbar show similarities when they describe feeling trapped like caged birds, but their portrayal of the birds contrast in their actions

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Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Tom ran for it even though he knew there were high risks of him being killed, which shows how the caged bird in the poem “Caged Bird” is much like him. In the poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, the caged bird is compared and contrasted to a free bird and by examining the circumstances of Tom Robinson’s life, I say that he is very much like the caged bird. For instance, in stanza two it’s stated “His wings are clipped and/ His feet are tied/ So he opens his throat to sing.”

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Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou were African Americans alive during the period in American history when minority groups were fighting hard for their rights and respect among the country. These two authors used their writing skill to shed light on how African Americans felt throughout this period of time, opening many people’s eyes to how the oppressed truly felt. The civil rights movement could have had an entirely different outcome if it weren’t outspoken individuals such as these two. In Hughes’s well known poem “I, Too,” Hughes talks about how the people that mistreat him will soon regret everything they’ve done and will realize the true potential of him and everyone like him.

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The poems in this essay both talk about being a woman. “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou is about more of a confident woman while “Woman” by Nikki Giovanni is about a woman who wants a man to change for her. The poems though very different, are also similar because they both talk about confidence as a woman. By the end of both poems the narrators both know that they are women who are strong and do not need anyone else 's acceptance but their own. They know their own self worth and that is enough for them.

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“ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou , a person who survived the Great Depression and a multitude of wars but lived in a time when her race and sex was put down and were not treated as equals because their skin was darker than white people. In the poem the caged bird sings because that 's all that the bird can do . The bird cannot fly or walk around freely because it is trapped so it does the only thing that it can do , sing. And the free bird can fly and explore the world freely and has more opportunities than the caged bird.

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During the 1900s, there were many famous authors who wrote about African Americans and Civil Rights. This was what was going on during this time period. Segregation and discrimination towards blacks was increasing. Two famous authors were Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. Langston Hughes wrote the poem “I, Too, Sing America.”

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The use of characterization of non-literal things develop the theme by using figurative language in both poems. In “Hope is the thing with feathers”, the examples of figurative language used in the poem are “Hope is the thing with feathers” which is a metaphor, and “It asked a crumb-of me” which is an example of personification. In “Caged Bird” the examples of figurative language that characterize non-literal things and develop the theme are “Dares to claim the sky” which is personification, and “Sings of Freedom” which is also personification. The metaphor of “Hope being a thing with feathers, makes hope a non-literal character. This quote makes “Hope” a character because it is using a metaphor to create a non-literal, that cannot have characteristics

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You cannot appreciate the good if you do not experience the bad. However in the poem “Sympathy”, by Dunbar, you can visualize the darker side of hope seeing as he gives more insight in the hurting side of hope. Both the poems use the metaphor of a bird to visualize the overall meaning of the poem. Dunbar uses his bird as a metaphor for the lack of freedom and

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Hope, Rage, and Sacrifice Oppression is an illness that has plagued the world for centuries. This is shown in “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou as the birds are trapped by oppression and the birds must break free from it. Maya Angelou and Paul Laurence Dunbar use the central symbols of the free bird and the caged bird to reveal the theme of oppression. The symbols of rage and hope accompany the theme oppression.

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In the two poems Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Caged Bird by Maya Angelou, gave a comparison between the life of a caged bird and the life of a slave. There are similarities and differences in the two poems. The difference between the two poem is that Sympathy is more aggressive than the poem Caged Bird, and the similarities of the two poems is the theme and imagery. The poem Sympathy the poem

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“Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou in 1968 announces to the world her frustration of racial inequality and the longing for freedom. She seeks to create sentiment in the reader toward the caged bird plight, and draw compassion for the imprisoned creature. (Davis) Angelou was born as “Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St Louis, Missouri”. “Caged Bird” was first published in the collection Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? 1983.

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In the poems “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, both portray captive birds that sing. However in “Sympathy”, the bird pleads with god for freedom, whereas in “Caged Bird” the captive bird calls for help from a free bird. In “Sympathy” the bird knows what freedom feels like since there was a time where the bird was once free, but now is trapped. In the first stanza the use of imagery revealed how freedom felt before the bird was caged.

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