The Theme of Freedom in Poetry Essay -- Maya Angelou Paul Dunbar Slave

The Theme of Freedom in meterWrite about three poems on freedom On Liberty and slaveholding (George Moses Horton), Sympathy (Paul Laurence Dunbar) and Caged skirt (Maya Angelou).I have chosen to write about three poems on freedom On Liberty andSlavery (George Moses Horton), Sympathy (Paul Laurence Dunbar) andCaged Bird (Maya Angelou). The full textual matter of the poems is attached. Ichose these three poems because the subject matter appealed to me andI believe that the poems convey their meaning very effectively. Uponresearching the poems, I discovered that Caged Bird was in fact animate by Sympathy, which accounts for the similarities in languageand imagery, as outlined below. All three poems deal with the subjectof freedom using the imagery of birds On Liberty and Slavery isnarrated as a human plea for freedom, and makes reference to birds inthat context, whereas Caged Bird and Sympathy both use the imagery ofcaged birds to explore the theme of loss of freedom. The symbolism ofbirds is used to depict freedom, as birds are essentially withoutconstraints in comparison to the limitations of humans, they havelimitless possibilities. When a bird is caged, however, it loses thatpotential and is restricted not by its own limitations, but the limitsset by another. This image is explored within the poems to depict thetheme of slavery.On Liberty and Slavery----------------------On Liberty and Slavery is an instance of a metaphysical poem it dealswith the concept of freedom using direct, personal language andcontemporary allusions. The troll used in the poem is taken from therhythm of Wesleys hymns Charles Wesley was the brother of JohnWesley (founder of the Methodists) and hymn wri... ...ten by Himself (1845)Sherman JR The bootleg Bard of North Carolina George Moses Horton andHis Poetry Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press (1997)Rice, A Radical Narratives of the Black Atlantic, Continuum New York(2003)Sapphire Black Wings and Blind Angels, Payback P ress Edinburgh(2001)McCarthy K bittersweet, The Womens Press Ltd (1998)Secondary Sourceswww.poets.org.uk (03/05/2004)http//docsouth.unc.edu/hortonlife/horton.htm (04/05/2004)http//www.christian-bookshop.co.uk/free/biogs/cwesley.htm(07/05/2004)http//www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/angeloum2.shtml(07/05/2004)---------------------------------------------------------------------1 Sherman JR The Black Bard of North Carolina George Moses Horton and His Poetry Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press (1997)