Sympathy,\" \"Digging,\" \"For a Lady I Know,\"

¶ … Sympathy," "Digging," "For A Lady I Know," and "Metaphors" are examples of poems that exemplify and uses poetic elements in order to capture the message the poet wants the reader of the poem to achieve. In essence, this paper will talk about the poetic elements and use of persona, speaker, and voice to interpret and understand the message of the poems that have been mentioned. "Sympathy" by Paul Lawrence Dunbar is an example of a poem that uses the power of dual persona in order for the poet to express his feelings. "Sympathy" also illustrates the poet's strong feelings about freedom through the tone of his voice in every line delivered in the poem. Dunbar makes use of dual persona effectively when he assumes the role of both the poet (the speaker) and the role of an individual similar to the plight and feelings of "a caged bird." Dunbar through his dual persona of the main character of the poem (the caged bird) and his emotional appeal to the poem ("I know what the caged bird feels! I know why he beats his wing! I know why the caged bird sings!"). The tone of his voice illustrates the author's feelings about the main subject and the topic of freedom, how, he, like the caged bird, wanted this freedom so much before, and understands the caged bird's want to get out, and experience freedom in life.

Another poem that best influenced me in the study of the role of speaker in the poem is "Digging" by Seamus Henry. "Digging" is a powerful poem in that the poet uses his 'voice' in the poem as an effective tool to extend his message to his audience, which is to inform us (the audience) of the power of writing as also a form of sustenance of an individual in life, most particularly in Seamus Henry's case. The poem is interesting because of the analogy that Henry draws between the act of digging and getting a potato underground and writing. Henry makes use of the potato-writing analogy to illustrate the fact that potato digging, which, to Henry is an important activity because of the potential of that plant to sustain life, is similar to the act of writing, which gives an individual 'internal sustenance.' Thus, what Seamus Henry points out here is that the life and sustenance the potato-digging activity gives to an individual is also similar to the life-giving sustenance that Henry's writing can give to his life. Henry best sums up his belief and feelings about writing in the ending lines of his poem "Digging": "But I've no spade to follow men like them / Between my fingers and my thumb / The squat pen rests, / I'll dig with it." Thus, through these lines, Henry brings out the power of writing that is just as powerful as the power given by workers digging potatoes. In essence, Henry, the speaker of the poem, is an essential element in the poem that gives it the important character of being persuasive in its main point/argument.