THE COMPLETE POEMS
OF
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar Author : Paul Laurence Dunbar Commentator : William Dean Howells Release date : May 7, 2006 [eBook #18338] Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18338 Credits : Produced by Leonard Johnson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMPLETE POEMS OF PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR *** THE COMPLETE POEMS OF PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR WITH THE INTRODUCTION TO "LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE" BY W. D. HOWELLS NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1922 Copyright 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905 By The Century Co. Copyright 1897, 1898, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905 By The Curtis Publishing Co. Copyright 1898 By The Outlook Co. Copyright 1898 By J. B. Walker Copyright 1903 By W. H. Gannett Copyright 1896, 1899, 1903, 1905, 1913 By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY PRINTED IN U. S. A. DEDICATIONS LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE TO MY MOTHER LYRICS OF THE HEARTHSIDE TO ALICE LYRICS OF LOVE AND LAUGHTER TO MISS CATHERINE IMPEY LYRICS OF SUNSHINE AND SHADOW TO MRS. FRANK CONOVER WITH THANKS FOR HER LONG BELIEF INTRODUCTION TO LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE I think I should scarcely trouble the reader with a special appeal in behalf of this book, if it had not specially appealed to me for reasons apart from the author's race, origin, and condition. The world is too old now, and I find myself too much of its mood, to care for the work of a poet because he is black, because his father and mother were slaves, because he was, before and after he began to write poems, an elevator-boy. These facts would certainly attract me to him as a man, if I knew him to have a literary ambition, but when it came to his literary art, I must judge it irrespective of these facts, and enjoy or endure it for what it was in itself. It seems to me that this was my experience with the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar when I found it in another form, and in justice to him I cannot wish that it should be otherwise with his readers here. Still, it will legitimately interest those who like to know the causes, or, if these may not be known, the sources, of things, to learn that the father and mother of the first poet of his race in our language were negroes without admixture of white blood. The father escaped from slavery in Kentucky to freedom in Canada, while there was still no hope of freedom otherwise; but the mother was freed by the events of the civil war, and came North to Ohio, where their son was born at Dayton, and grew up with such chances and mischances for mental training as everywhere befall the children of the poor. He has told me that his father picked up the trade of a plasterer, and when he had taught himself to read, loved chiefly to read history. The boy's mother shared his passion for literature, with a special love of poetry, and after the father died she struggled on in more than the poverty she had shared with him. She could value the faculty which her son showed first in prose sketches and attempts at fiction, and she was proud of the praise and kindness they won him among the people of the town, where he has never been without the warmest and kindest friends. In fact from every part of Ohio and from several cities of the adjoining States, there came letters in cordial appreciation of the critical recognition which it was my pleasure no less than my duty to offer Paul Dunbar's work in another place. It seemed to me a happy omen for him that so many people who had known him, or known of him, were glad of a stranger's good word; and it was gratifying to see that at home he was esteemed for the things he had done rather than because as the son of negro slaves he had done them. If a prophet is often without honor in his own country, it surely is nothing against him when he has it. In this case it deprived me of the glory of a discoverer; but that is sometimes a barren joy, and I am always willing to forego it. What struck me in reading Mr. Dunbar's poetry was what had already struck his friends in Ohio and Indiana, in Kentucky and Illinois. They had felt, as I felt, that however gifted his race had proven itself in music, in oratory, in several of the other arts, here was the first instance of an American negro who had evinced innate distinction in literature. In my criticism of his book I had alleged Dumas in France, and I had forgetfully failed to allege the far greater Pushkin in Russia; but these were both mulattoes, who might have been supposed to derive their qualities from white blood vastly more artistic than ours, and who were the creatures of an environment more favorable to their literary development. So far as I could remember, Paul Dunbar was the only man of pure African blood and of American civilization to feel the negro life aesthetically and express it lyrically. It seemed to me that this had come to its most modern consciousness in him, and that his brilliant and unique achievement was to have studied the American negro objectively, and to have represented him as he found him to be, with humor, with sympathy, and yet with what the reader must instinctively feel to be entire truthfulness. I said that a race which had come to this effect in any member of it, had attained civilization in him, and I permitted myself the imaginative prophecy that the hostilities and the prejudices which had so long constrained his race were destined to vanish in the arts; that these were to be the final proof that God had made of one blood all nations of men. I thought his merits positive and not comparative; and I held that if his black poems had been written by a white man, I should not have found them less admirable. I accepted them as an evidence of the essential unity of the human race, which does not think or feel, black in one and white in another, but humanly in all. Yet it appeared to me then, and it appears to me now, that there is a precious difference of temperament between the races which it would be a great pity ever to lose, and that this is best preserved and most charmingly suggested by Mr. Dunbar in those pieces of his where he studies the moods and traits of his race in its own accent of our English. We call such pieces dialect pieces for want of some closer phrase, but they are really not dialect so much as delightful personal attempts and failures for the written and spoken language. In nothing is his essentially refined and delicate art so well shown as in these pieces, which, as I ventured to say, described the range between appetite and emotion, with certain lifts far beyond and above it, which is the range of the race. He reveals in these a finely ironical perception of the negro's limitations, with a tenderness for them which I think so very rare as to be almost quite new. I should say, perhaps, that it was this humorous quality which Mr. Dunbar had added to our literature, and it would be this which would most distinguish him, now and hereafter. It is something that one feels in nearly all the dialect pieces; and I hope that in the present collection he has kept all of these in his earlier volume, and added others to them. But the contents of this book are wholly of his own choosing, and I do not know how much or little he may have preferred the poems in literary English. Some of these I thought very good, and even more than very good, but not distinctively his contribution to the body of American poetry. What I mean is that several people might have written them; but I do not know any one else at present who could quite have written the dialect pieces. These are divinations and reports of what passes in the hearts and minds of a lowly people whose poetry had hitherto been inarticulately expressed in music, but now finds, for the first time in our tongue, literary interpretation of a very artistic completeness. I say the event is interesting, but how important it shall be can be determined only by Mr. Dunbar's future performance. I cannot undertake to prophesy concerning this; but if he should do nothing more than he has done, I should feel that he had made the strongest claim for the negro in English literature that the negro has yet made. He has at least produced something that, however we may critically disagree about it, we cannot well refuse to enjoy; in more than one piece he has produced a work of art. W. D. HOWELLS. INDEX OF TITLES Absence 93 Accountability 5 Advice 250 After a Visit 42 After many Days 267 After the Quarrel 40 After While 53 Alexander Crummell—Dead 113 Alice 40 Anchored 256 Angelina 138 Ante-Bellum Sermon, An 13 Appreciation 247 At Candle-Lightin' Time 155 At Cheshire Cheese 129 At Loafing-Holt 263 At Night 254 At Sunset Time 263 At the Tavern 226 Awakening, The 252 Back-Log Song, A 143 Ballad 58 Ballade 204 Banjo Song, A 20 Barrier, The 99 Behind the Arras 94 Bein' Back Home 259 Beyond the Years 41 Black Samson of Brandywine 205 Blue 253 Bohemian, The 92 Boogah Man, The 185 Booker T. Washington 209 Border Ballad, A 48 Boys' Summer Song, A 235 Breaking the Charm 149 Bridal Measure, A 97 By Rugged Ways 215 By the Stream 50 Cabin Tale, A 153 Capture, The 275 Career, A 285 Change Has Come, The 58 Change, The 258 Changing Time 72 Chase, The 258 Choice, A 125 Christmus Is A-Comin' 153 Christmas on the Plantation 137 Christmas 269 Christmas Carol 278 Christmas Folksong, A 236 Christmas in the Heart 105 Circumstances Alter Cases 261 Colored Band, The 178 Colored Soldiers, The 50 Columbian Ode 47 Communion 110 Comparison 59 Compensation 256 Confessional 116 Confidence, A 73 Conquerors, The 112 Conscience and Remorse 31 Coquette Conquered, A 62 Corn-song, A 59 Corn-Stalk Fiddle, The 16 Crisis, The 111 Curiosity 241 Curtain 42 Dance, The 170 Dat Ol' Mare O' Mine 189 Dawn 65 Day 248 Deacon Jones' Grievance 39 Dead 73 Death 227 Death of the First Born, The 258 Death Song, A 142 Debt, The 213 De Critters' Dance 181 Delinquent, The 64 Dely 148 Deserted Plantation, The 67 Despair 261 De Way T'ings Come 225 Differences 192 Dilettante, The: A Modern Type 49 Dinah Kneading Dough 188 Diplomacy 238 Dirge 66 Dirge for a Soldier 199 Disappointed 60 Discovered 60 Discovery, The 251 Distinction 114 Disturber, The 131 Douglass 208 Dove, The 167 Dream Song I 104 Dream Song II 104 Dreamer, The 100 Dreamin' Town 254 Dreams 100 Dreams 166 Drizzle 180 Drowsy Day, A 65 Easy-Goin' Feller, An 49 Encouraged 238 Encouragement 184 End of the Chapter, The 101 Equipment 276 Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the Weary Eyes 3 Evening 276 Expectation 131 Faith 244 Farewell to Arcady 123 Farm Child's Lullaby, The 245 Fisher Child's Lullaby, The 244 Fishing 172 Florida Night, A 191 Foolin' wid de Seasons 139 For the Man who Fails 118 Forest Greeting, The 237 Forever 240 Fount of Tears, The 224 Frederick Douglass 6 Frolic, A 200 From the Porch at Runnymede 275 Garret, The 96 Golden Day, A 251 Good-Night 61 Gourd, The 107 Grievance, A 188 Growin' Gray 80 Harriet Beecher Stowe 119 Haunted Oak, The 219 He Had His Dream 61 Her Thought and His 93 Hope 247 How Lucy Backslid 158 How Shall I Woo Thee 289 "Howdy, Honey, Howdy!" 196 Hunting Song 150 Hymn 66 Hymn 133 Hymn, A 98 If 75 Ione 31 In An English Garden 111 In August 130 In May 166 In Summer 91 In Summer Time 280 In the Morning 190 In the Tends of Akbar 223 Inspiration 179 Invitation to Love 61 Itching Heels 222 James Whitcomb Riley 287 Jealous 145 Jilted 136 Joggin' Erlong 165 Johnny Speaks 235 Just Whistle a Bit 98 Keep a-pluggin' Away 46 Keep a Song up on de Way 169 Kidnaped 255 King Is Dead, The 105 Knight, The 108 Lapse, The 122 Lawyers' Ways, The 22 Lazy Day, The 249 Lesson, The 8 Letter, A 151 Life 8 Life's Tragedy 225 Li'l' Gal 207 Lily of the Valley, The 237 Limitations 250 Lincoln 184 Little Brown Baby 134 Little Christmas Basket, A 174 Little Lucy Landman 107 Liza May 267 Lonesome 79 Long Ago 192 'Long to'ds Night 187 Longing 21 Looking-Glass, The 206 Lost Dream, A 270 Love 103 Love and Grief 102 Love Despoiled 122 Love Letter, A 266 Love-Song 210 Love Song, A 222 Lover and the Moon, The 29 Lover's Lane 132 Love's Apotheosis 89 Love's Castle 201 Love's Draft 252 Love's Humility 106 Love's Phases 117 Love's Pictures 282 Love's Seasons 215 Lullaby 144 Lyric, A 288 Madrigal, A 287 Mare Rubrum 110 Master-Player The 17 Masters, The 258 Meadow Lark, The 71 Melancholia 54 Memory of Martha, The 194 Merry Autumn 56 Misty Day, A 207 Misapprehension 117 Monk's Walk, The 209 Morning 252 Morning Song of Love 202 Mortality 103 My Corn-Cob Pipe 129 My Lady of Castle Grand 180 My Little March Girl 120 My Sort o' Man 140 My Sweet Brown Gal 176 Mystery, The 17 Mystic Sea, The 91 Murdered Lover, The 211 Musical, A 253 Nature and Art 52 Negro Love Song, A 49 News, The 136 Night 263 Night, Dim Night 227 Night of Love 46 Noddin' by de Fire 201 Noon 226 Nora: a Serenade 62 Not They Who Soar 18 Nutting Song 282 October 63 Ode for Memorial Day 22 Ode to Ethiopia 15 Old Apple-tree, The 10 Old Cabin, The 260 Old Front Gate, The 199 Old Homestead, The 283 Old Memory, An 284 Ol' Tunes, The 53 On a Clean Book 203 On the Death of W. C. 284 On the Dedication of Dorothy Hall 214 On the River 285 On the Road 142 On the Sea Wall 115 One Life 72 Opportunity 242 Over the Hills 90 Paradox, The 89 Parted 240 Parted 145 Party, The 83 Passion and Love 11 Path, The 21 Phantom Kiss, The 109 Philosophy 212 Photograph, The 144 Phyllis 74 Place Where the Rainbow Ends, The 246 Plantation Child's Lullaby, The 241 Plantation Portrait, A 173 Plantation Melody, A 193 Plea, A 167 Poet and His Song, The 4 Poet and the Baby, The 114 Poet, The 191 Pool, The 198 Poor Withered Rose 286 Possession 198 Possum 141 Possum Trot 147 Prayer, A 14 Precedent 106 Preference A 213 Premonition 23 Preparation 67 Prometheus 117 Promise 12 Protest 133 Puttin' the Baby Away 243 Quilting, The 240 Rain-Songs 270 Real Question, The 135 Religion 38 Reluctance 203 Remembered 121 Resignation 106 Response 175 Retort 5 Retrospection 24 Riding to Town 70 Right to Die, The 94 Right's Security 75 Rising of the Storm, The 8 Rivals, The 27 River of Ruin, The 265 Roadway, A 214 Robert Gould Shaw 221 Roses 221 Roses and Pearls 270 Sailor's Song, A 92 Sand-Man, The 235 Scamp 239 Secret, The 68 Seedling, The 12 She Gave Me a Rose 103 She Told Her Beads 106 Ships That Pass in the Night 64 Signs of the Times 77 Silence 186 Slow Through the Dark 211 Snowin' 168 Soliloquy of a Turkey 171 Song 13 Song 178 Song, A 248 Song, A 271 Song of Summer 26 Song, The 76 Sonnet 115 Sparrow, The 78 Speakin' at de' Cou'tHouse 205 Speakin' O' Christmas 78 Spellin'-Bee, The 42 Spiritual, A 194 Spring Fever 176 Spring Song 26 Spring Wooing, A 164 Starry Night, A 288 Summer Night, A 262 Stirrup Cup, The 125 Summer Pastoral, A 279 Summer's Night, A 64 Sum, The 114 Sunset 9 Suppose 258 Sympathy 102 Temptation 146 Thanksgiving Poem, A 281 Then and Now 129 Theology 106 Thou Art My Lute 109 Till the Wind Gets Right 262 Time to Tinker 'Roun'! 135 To a Captious Critic 189 To a Lady Playing the Harp 116 To a Dead Friend 216 To a Violet Found on All Saints' Day 179 To An Ingrate 223 To Dan 248 To E. H. K. 97 To Her 266 To J. Q. 238 To Louise 26 To Pfrimmer 277 To the Eastern Shore 202 To the Memory of Mary Young 81 To the Miami 277 To the Road 163 To the South 216 Trouble in de Kitchen 268 Tryst, The 166 Turning of the Babies in the Bed, The 170 'Twell de Night Is Pas' 253 Twilight 241 Two Little Boots 163 Two Songs 19 Unexpressed 25 Unlucky Apple, The 251 Unsung Heroes, The 196 Vagrants 119 Valse, The 175 Vengeance Is Sweet 98 Veteran, The 256 Voice of the Banjo, The 124 Visitor, The 177 Wading' in de Creek 239 Waiting 100 Warm Day in Winter, A 168 We Wear the Mask 71 Warrior's Prayer, The 123 Weltschmertz 220 W'en I Gits Home 195 What's the Use 249 When a Feller's Itchin' to Be Spanked 264 When all Is Done 113 When de Co'n Pone's Hot 57 When Dey 'Listed Colored Soldiers 182 When Malindy Sings 82 When Sam'l Sings 208 When the Old Man Smokes 95 When Winter Darkening all Around 275 Whip-Poor-Will and Katy-Did 186 Whistling Sam 156 Whittier 18 Why Fades a Dream? 77 Wind and the Sea, The 69 Winter-Song 236 Winter's Approach 256 Winter's Day, A 120 With the Lark 90 Wooing, The 55 Worn Out 286 Wraith, The 186 Yesterday and To-Morrow 257