Dunbar
... is acknowledged to be Dunbar's tribute to his mother's spontaneous outbursts of singing as she worked in the kitchen. The message of the poem is of praise for simplicity of spirit and the love of God. Another of Dunbar's superb poems is entitled "Sympathy", written in 1895: I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland 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 opens 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 wings! I know why the caged bird sings at 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! "Sympathy" ("sym" meaning with and "pathy" meaning feeling) is a very emotional poem about a caged bird trapped with no way to escape. "A poem like 'Sympathy'- with its repeated line, 'I know why the caged bird feels, alas!'- can be read as a cry against slavery, but was probably written out of the feeling that the poet's talent was imprisoned in the conventions of his time and the exigencies of the literary marketplace" (Revell, Paul Laurence Dunbar, 73). Dunbar's first stanza in the poem uses the word 'alas' to mean anxiety. Throughout "Sympathy" the caged bird is enduring distress due to his life's limitations. "And the faint perfume from its chalice steals- I know what the caged bird feels!" These two lines from "Sympathy" express the caged bird's thought of someone stealing his ideas and thoughts. "I know why the caged bird beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars" expresses rage the caged bird feels and the physical abuse the caged bird endures trying to escape. During this period in Dunbar's life, he met George Washington Carver in Dayton, James Whitcomb Riley in Indianapolis, and he became lifelong friends with Dr. H.A. Tobey, a Toledo psychiatrist. The major accomplishments of Paul Laurence Dunbar's life during 1872 to 1906 also labeled him as being a short story writer. Although Dunbar experienced much criticism in his early career, he also enjoyed a good deal of success. These successes, unfortunately, did not come without some personal sacrifices and tribulations. He encountered rifts with his closest friends and associates, often the result of his business and artistic decisions. One such confrontation occurred when Dunbar decided to sell certain works to George Horace Lorimer of the Saturday Evening Post and Harrison Smith Morris of Lippincott's, two longtime friends of Dunbar, to the dissatisfaction of his agent. Dunbar responded by explaining: Both are my personal friends and I should feel myself rather niggardly if I should withhold from them first sight of the things that are in their line merely because now that my things are selling I could get better prices elsewhere... I feel a sense of honor and obligation towards these men which is a little beyond price. (Revell 108) This determination of Dunbar to have his works printed in major literary publications showed his sincere desire to have his more serious, non-dialect short stories to be exposed to the public. Dunbar's short stories include the works "Folks from Dixie", "The Strength of Gideon and Other Short Stories", "The Heart of Happy Hollow" and others. The last artistic accomplishment of Paul Laurence Dunbar's life was labeled as a serious novelist. Dunbar wrote four novels between 1897 and 1901. The first two of these works, The Uncalled (1898) and The Love of Landry (1900) are "white" novels in which all the characters are white and no reference is made to the presence of Black people. The other two novels, The Fanatics (1901)...