He uses many devices such as metaphors, repetition, simile, imagery and Anthropomorphism to support his theme. ... Paul Dunbar uses many examples throughout the poem to demonstrate his theme. ... For example the second line of the stanza says "till its blood is red on the cruel bars" that line demonstrates how the poet has tried escaping numerous times until he harmed himself. ... Paul Laurence Dunbar uses many literary devices to express to the reader how he felt as an African American. ... The literary devices all help to show the apparent theme of the agony of captivity since the ...

• Word Count: 692
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

A well-known example is his work in The Draft Horse: a narrative poem that at a first glance, is simply about a random act of violence where two people travelling through "a pitch-dark limitless grove" (4) are suddenly approached by an unknown man who "came out of the trees took our horse by the head [and] deliberately stabbed him dead." (5-8) The abnormality and eerily calm ambience about this poem is almost deliberate; so when you take a first look it over its' form, structure and language it deftly composes a simplistic poem with nothing out of place – comp...

• Word Count: 943
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate