"Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Have you ever yearned to be free from cares, duties, and social restrictions and yet could not follow the restless urging of your heart? If you have, perhaps you too know "what the caged bird feels."


SYMPATHY
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
   When the sun is bright on the upward slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass;
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
   When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals --
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
   Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
   And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting --
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
   When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, --
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
   But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings --
I know why the caged bird sings!

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Dunbar gained international renown and popularized black literature by lecturing and reading his poetry. He published prolifically: seven volumes of verse (over 400 poems), four novels; four collections of short stories; dozens of articles in magazines; song lyrics, musical plays and sketches.

     --from African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927, edited by Joan R. Sherman (Dover

       Publications, Inc., 1997)

To read more about Paul Laurence Dunbar, click here.