Symbol Analysis
What do we do when we want to get a point across? We repeat it—over and over and over again. The speaker of "Sympathy" uses repetition in a way that allows us to understand how he's feeling, through his identification with the caged bird. This speaker isn't a happy speaker, and he makes sure that we know that through his use of repetition
- Line 1, 7: In the first stanza, the speaker repeats the words "I know what the caged bird feels" twice, at the beginning and the end of the stanza. By telling us that he knows how the "caged bird" feels, he implies that, like the bird, he feels trapped. He uses repetition to get his point across here.
- Line 8, 14: In the second stanza, the words "I know why the caged bird beats his wing" are repeated (with slight variation), at the end of the stanza: "I know why he beats his wing!" Here, again, we can see the speaker emphasizing his identification with the caged bird through repetition. These lines are also a variation on the repeated lines in the first stanza: "I know what the caged bird feels." So the speaker uses repetition with variation in order to hammer home to us the idea that he's stuck. He doesn't have freedom.
- Line 15, 21: In the final stanza, we get some more repetition, with the words "I know why the caged bird sings." Why's the caged bird singing? It's not because it's happy, but because it's sad. Here, again, the speaker uses repetition to emphasize his identification with the caged bird.