Analize 2 poem

Compare and Contrast Sympathy ' and We Wear the Mask ' by Paul Laurence Dunbar 'Sympathy ' and We Wear the Mask ' are without doubt two of the best crafts that a beleaguered poet , who struggled against the norms of his time , would inevitably come up . Though Sympathy ' and We Wear the Mask ' both speak of Dunbar 's regret for being imprisoned in his own situation , condemning the slavery of blacks and the absence of opportunity for his own race , the two poems may also relate to how he felt confined in the literary norms of

his era

Who was Paul Laurence Dunbar ? A look at his life and the manner of his death will help explain a lot of many of his works . Born to slave parents , Dunbar 's mother Matilda loved poetry and encouraged her children to read (Biography from http /www .dunbarsite .org /biopld .asp

Matilda was his greatest inspiration for trekking the road to poetry Despite being poor in material things , Matilda taught his children songs and poetry , which she learned from one of the families she worked in At the age of six , the young Dunbar was already writing and reciting poetry

Dunbar 's works , including Sympathy ' and We wear the Mask ' were sheer expressions of his life , struggle , anticipation , and a short-lived satisfaction (which was what he felt with his marriage . Although both poems contained black themes , they are both very inspirational for both blacks and whites

The repetition of the phrases , I know why /what the caged bird feels /beats /sings ' and we wear the mask ' in these poems manifests his cry for freedom from norms and slavery . With one exception in We Wear the Mask ' which expresses the poet 's anticipation for freedom , yet with a deep , passionate regret for being black that penetrates his reality . We wear the mask ' in itself is masked because its link to the black race , though obvious enough , not being openly stated (Hudson , et . al

Already suffering from tuberculosis , Dunbar ' life events when he neared 30 - the breakup of his marriage and his poor medical condition - made him suffer from depression and resort to abusing alcohol which further weakened his health

Many of his works in this period were reflections of this angst , such as the two poems being compared and contrasted here . We wear the mask and Sympathy ' clearly enunciates how Dunbar tried to conceal his angriest messages . Both poems similarly indicate the black race as a collective when Dunbar mentions we ' in We Wear the Mask ' and caged birds ' in Sympathy

However , the former seemed to elicit a sense of diversion amid the existing situation and subtleties ' while the latter creates a submissive approach to what Dunbar probably felt as an inescapable reality , yet imagining how it would be like to attain the kind of freedom ' he longed for his entire race

As an African-American who struggled against poverty all his life until his death in 1906 , Dunbar had to work as an elevator operator even after...