What is the theme of Paul Laurence Dunbar's

poem "Sympathy"?
The theme of the poem "Sympathy" is racism, and the imprisoning effect it has on the soul.
In the poem, the poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar compares himself to a caged bird. He can empathize
with how the bird feels; just as the bird looks with longing at the beautiful world just beyond the
bars that cage him in, so the poet, as a black man in America in the early 1900s, feels about his
situation as a victim of a racism and discrimination in his society.
The poet goes beyond the empathy he feels for the caged bird in the second stanza of the poem,
when he develops his theme further, describing the helpless rage both he and the bird feel as they
look out from behind the bars that confine them at opportunities and freedoms others can enjoy but
which they are denied. Like the bird, he "beats (his) wings" ferociously against the cage's cruel
bars, but to no avail.
Finally, in the last stanza, exhausted and in pain from his futile attempts to escape his prison, the
poet identifies the song of the caged bird. It is not "a carol of joy or glee", but a desperate prayer
for deliverance, for the bird and for himself, that one day both "would be free".

Can anyone tell me how to compare and contrast

the poem Sympathy and The Haunted Oak by
Paul Laurence Dunbar?
In order to compare and contrast works by either the same author, or different authors, the easiest
thing to do is look at the imagery, symbolism and themes.
Overall, both "Sympathy" and "The Haunted Oak" use elements of nature as a portal to explain
something more. Therefore, one could focus upon how nature is regarded in order to compare and
contrast the poems.
Another point to examine within the poems would be the idea of solitude and imprisonment. Both
poems speak to the fact that the subjects, a bird and a tree, are alone.
One last point to make when comparing and contrasting poems is the message the author is trying to
get across to the reader. What is the author saying in each of the poems? Is the reflection the author
is offering similar? If so, how? Is the message different? Again, if so, how?
Basically, when comparing and contrasting anything, the purpose of the text is to examine how the
texts are the same and how they are different.