Paul Laurence Dunbar - 6 Short Poems (1896-1903)

Forgotten Poems #103

   
              —: A Choice (1899) :—

       They please me not—these solemn songs
       That hint of sermons covered up.
       'Tis true the world should heed its wrongs,
            But in a poem let me sup,
       Not simples brewed to cure or ease
       Humanity's confessed disease,
       But the spirit-wine of a singing line,
            Or a dew-drop in a honey cup!
   

   
              —: Life (1896) :—

       A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
       A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
       A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
       And never a laugh but the moans come double;
            And that is life!

       A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
       With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;
       And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,
       And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;
            And that is life!
   

   
              —: Sympathy (1899) :—

       I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
             When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
             When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass
       And the river flows like a stream of glass
             When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
       And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
       I know what the caged bird feels!

       I know why the caged bird beats his wing
             Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
             For he must fly back to his perch and cling
       When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
             And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
       And the pulse again with a keener sting—
       I know why he beats his wing!

       I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
             When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
             When he beats his bars and would be free;
       It is not a carol of joy or glee,
             But a prayer he sends from his heart's deep core,
       But a plea that upward to Heaven he flings—
       I know why the caged bird sings!
   

   
              —: The Master-Player (1896) :—

       An old worn harp that had been played
       Till all its strings were loose and frayed,
       Joy, Hate and Fear, each one essayed,
       To play. But each in turn had found
       No sweet responsiveness of sound.

       Then Love the Master-Player came
       With heaving breast and eyes aflame;
       The harp he took all undismayed,
       Smote on its strings, still strange to song,
       And brought forth music sweet and strong.
   

    
              —: The Sparrow (1896) :—

       A little bird, with plumage brown,
       Beside my window flutters down,
       A moment chirps its little strain,
       Ten taps upon my window-pane,
       And chirps again, and hops along,
       To call my notice to its song;
       But I work on, nor heed its lay,
       Till, in neglect, it flies away.

       So birds of peace and hope and love
       Come fluttering earthward from above,
       To settle on life's window-sills,
       And ease our load of earthly ills;
       But we, in traffic's rush and din
       Too deep engaged to let them in,
       With deadened heart and sense plod on,
       Nor know our loss till they are gone.
   

    
              —: Silence (1903) :—

       'Tis better to sit here beside the sea,
       Here on the spray-kissed beach,
       In silence, that between such friends as we
       Is full of deepest speech.
    

“Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). Born, Dayton, Ohio. Educated in public schools, and graduated from Dayton High School, where he achieved some distinction. Editor of school paper, and noted as a versifier, from his grammar-school days.” Composed his first poem at age 6, gave his first public recital at age 9, and published his first poems in The Herald, a Dayton newspaper, at age 16. Dunbar would go on to become one of the first African American writers to gain international fame in the late-1800s.

“Printed his first book, Oak and Ivy, in 1893. Two friends of his early life helped most to shape his career, and to encourage him in his days of struggle—Dr. H. A. Tobey, the celebrated alienist of Toledo, Ohio, and Frederick Douglass. The former helped him to bring his second book, Majors and Minors, before the public; the latter, with whom he was associated in the Negro Building at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, was the hero of the poet's dreams, the one to whom he dedicated two of his most serious poems.”

“The famous criticism of Majors and Minors by William Dean Howells in Harper's Weekly, in 1897 established Dunbar's prestige as an important figure in American literature. From that time his success was assured .” (his wife, poet and writer Alice Dunbar Nelson, in Caroling Dusk, 1927) Though he died young, Dunbar was prolific, publishing a dozen books of poetry, four books of short-stories, four novels, and a play. He also wrote the lyrics for the first all-African-American Broadway production, In Dahomey (1903).

    
              —: After Paul Laurence Dunbar :—
                               by Dick Whyte

       limbs sliced & diced
       by time
       entrusted to the river,

       makers of words
       we are the way

       the world remembers
    

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