As a result he moves to the act of singing for freedom. Through this prayer, he is making a plea for freedom. Protest fails and Dunbar supports the prayer. It is at this point comes a difference between Dunbar and other modern post-modern black poets. When Dunbar goes for prayer, supplication, modern and post-modern black poets go to protest. In the postmodern poetry, blacks use the themes of protest whereas in Dunbar we find the tone of supplication.
Throughout the poem, the poet is comparing himself and the African American with the caged bird who is deprived of all the natural and fundamental rights. The feeling of suffocation is increased when the bird tries to fly but unfortunately is wounded by the bars of the cage.
True, the Civil War had liberated blacks from slavery, and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property, and so on. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U. However, court and legislative decisions later emasculated the legal protection of blacks.
For example, the U. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that it was legal to provide "separate but equal" accommodations for passengers of Louisiana's railroads. This ruling set a precedent that led to segregated schools, restaurants, parks, libraries, and so on. Meanwhile, hate groups inflicted inhuman treatment on innocent blacks, including brutal beatings. Lynchings of innocent blacks were not uncommon. Many so-called "enlightened" or "liberal-minded" Americans looked the other way, including law-enforcement officers, clergymen, politicians, and ordinary Americans.
Some churches even limited membership to whites. Because blacks had been relegated to the lowest stratum of society, they had to attend poorly equipped schools and settle for menial jobs as porters, ditch-diggers, servants, shoeshine boys, and so on. Dunbar, a brilliant student in high school, worked as an elevator operator before his writing earned him a measure of respect.
Hatred of blacks continued in the 20th Century. The Ku Klux Klan, which disbanded in the early 's, reformed in and attracted more than 4 million members nationwide by the mids. Prejudice against blacks in America remains strong today in spite of major advances in favor of blacks. Consequently, Dunbar's poem remains relevant. Schools throughout America continue to include it in curriculums. I know what the caged bird feels, alas! The first six lines of each stanza contain four feet and therefore make up a tetrameter.
The last line of each stanza contains three feet and therefore makes up a trimeter. Some of the feet in the tetrameters and trimeters are iambs, and some are anapests. An iamb contains an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, and an anapest contains two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. Your email address will not be published. Post Comment. As part of our ongoing work around The Reader Bookshelf, we've asked staff to share their thoughts about some of the….
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