The Sparrow by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872. He became one of the first influential Black poets in American literature. He was an American poet, novelist and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar became one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. In addition to his poems, short stories and novels, he also wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy "In Dahomey" (1903), the first African-American musical produced on Broadway in New York. He dies out of tuberculosis in the year 1906.


🐦Theme 🐦

The theme of the poem "The Sparrow" is that nature is all around us, beautiful and prosperous, but people nowadays are so wrapped up in their own lives, they do not appreciate all that nature has to offer.

🐦Summary🐦

The poem "The Sparrow" is about a little brown sparrow who is perched upon a person's windowsill. But the person is too busy to notice the sparrow. Then, the poem launches into a deeper meaning on how we should respect and cherish nature while it lasts. The poet says that sparrows or birds with their brown feathers come down to the window. They fly very fast and get closer to attract his attention. They also do a small noise and making short high sounds to attract his hearing sense. So, they flutter and chirps doing great physical efforts to attract the attention of Man in general and the poet particularly. 

Birds flutter to get the poet's attention. Sparrow started singing and added more efforts to attract their attention, however all tries met with neglect and ignorance. Finally, Bird flew away sadly and hopelessly when human neglected it and let it fly far away with a broken heart. The poet says that birds are always a symbol of a great values like love, peace and hope. Sparrows come to the Earth to relieve or help us to get rid of our life's loads and problems. Sparrows try to get closer but Man unintentionally ignore them because of traffic, obstacles or problems of life. People are busy with life matters, that they can not enjoy the songs or beauty of such a bird. Unlikely, we do not recognize them until they leave or we lose them indeed.

🖋 Literary Devices 🖋

Alliteration

Alliteration is referred to the multiple repetitions of a consonant which happens to be the first letter of multiple words.

Example from the poem: bird - brown ['b'] settle - sills ['s']

Assonance

Assonance refers to the repetitive sound of a vowel that is present in words in the same sentences. These words might either be together or near to each other.

Example from the poem: ease - earthly ['e']

Rhyme

Rhyme is an interesting and fun technique that refers to the use of words which has similar sound effects at the end of each sentence.

Example from the poem: brown - down, lay - away, love - above, sills - ills, din - in.


Allegory

Allegory is a very effective poetic device that actually represents the abstract ideas that the poet wants to put forward in the form of characters, events, and figures.

Examples from this poem: Little bird,  we

📕 Glossary 📕

Plumage               - Feather
Flutters               - Beating Feather
Chrips               - To make short high sounds
Heed                - To pay Attention to
Sills                - Bottom of the window either inside or outside
Plod on                - To leave heavily in a hesitation because of life loads ignoring bird



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