Comparing The Caged Bird, By Emily Bronte And Paul Laurence Dunbar

Emily Bronte, the author of The Caged Bird, was raised in Northern England during the Romantic Era. She lived in an extremely remote area; this contributed to her agoraphobia. She rarely left her home. Her father was a pastor, and she was very religious. Her belief was that nature was perfection and was the closest she could get to God while on Earth. In The Caged Bird, Bronte expresses their longing to be free from the “cage” that holds them. In similar respects, Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote Sympathy in response to Bronte, in the Realism Era. Dunbar was very familiar with the feeling of being trapped, not just individually but as a demographic of people. Dunbar’s parents were slaves, and his father fought for the North in the Civil War. Dunbar …show more content…
Much like Bronte, he believed nature was perfect. His belief stemming from the connection nature held for him to freedom. Bronte and Dunbar have their differences within their lives and their poems, but, they both show strong similarities in the way they convey their messages using form, language, and symbolism. First off, Bronte and Dunbar both use the form of a lyrical poem to express their personal feelings and emotion about the respective messages. A lyric poem is defined as a poem expressing personal feelings through symbolism and first person narrative in a way that is like a song. (Merriam-Webster) Throughout Bronte’s poem, The Caged Bird, she expressed her deep and personal longing for freedom; her feelings of “unexhausted woe” bleed through her poem. 2(Line 4) Throughout the text of The Caged Bird, Bronte makes reference to herself as “myself” and “I”, as a first person point of view.