Literary devices are tools used by writers to present their ideas, feelings, and emotions. They also make the poem and stories appealing to the readers. Paul Lawrence Dunbar has used various literary devices to enhance the intended impacts of his poem. Some of the major literary devices have been analyzed below.
Imagery: Imagery is used to make the readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “When the sun is bright on the upland slopes”, “And the river flows like a stream of glass” and “I know why he beats his wing.”
Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /o/ in “And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars” and the sound of /i/ in “I know why the caged bird beats his wing.”
Simile: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between different persons and objects by using ‘like’ or ‘as’. For example, the flowing river is compared with the stream of glass in the fourth line, “And the river flows like a stream of glass.”
Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession. For example, the sounds of /h/ and /b/ in ‘When he beats his bars and he would be free’.
Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings different from literal meanings. The caged bird symbolizes African Americans desperate for freedom from slavery. Cage stands for various tactics white people used to block their ways to freedom.
Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects different in nature. There is an extended metaphor of bird used in this poem. Here the caged bird is an entire African-American community in slavery.
Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break.
Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of some verses. For example, the words ‘I know what the caged birds feel’ as repeated to express the poet’s agony of his people.
