The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar: Enriched edition. Reflecting on African American Life in 19th Century Poetry

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

In "The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar," the eloquent voice of African American literature emerges powerfully, encapsulating the struggles and resilience of a marginalized community at the turn of the 20th century. Dunbar's innovative use of dialect showcases the rich cultural heritage and expressive nuance of African American English while simultaneously employing standard English to traverse the broader emotional landscapes of love, loss, and aspiration. The anthology is framed within the context of the post-Civil War era, a time when African Americans, though free, grappled with systemic racism and societal exclusion, making Dunbar's work both a personal and political statement. Paul Laurence Dunbar, born in 1872 to formerly enslaved parents, was one of the first African American writers to gain national prominence. His unique upbringing in a segregated society, combined with an illustrious literary career that included pioneering works in both poetry and prose, positioned Dunbar as a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. His engagement with identity and social justice is reflected in the thematic depth of his poetry, which often serves as a bridge between the African American experience and universal human conditions. For readers seeking an authentic and nuanced exploration of African American identity and experience, "The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar" is essential. This collection offers a profound lens into the triumphs and heartaches of a community often silenced, making it a timeless and relevant read for anyone interested in the intersections of race, culture, and literature.

In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.

Genres: Poetry, African American, Nonfiction, Classics, Collections

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life, one poem in the collection Ode to Ethiopia. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Paul Laurence Dunbar on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio to parents who had escaped from slavery; his father was a veteran of the American Civil War, having served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment. His parents instilled in him a love of learning and history. He was a student at an all-white high school, Dayton Central High School, and he participated actively as a student. During high school, he was both the editor of the school newspaper and class president, as well as the president of the school literary society. Dunbar had also started the first African-American newsletter in Dayton.

He wrote his first poem at age 6 and gave his first public recital at age 9. Dunbar's first published work came in a newspaper put out by his high school friends Wilbur and Orville Wright, who owned a printing plant. The Wright Brothers later invested in the Dayton Tattler, a newspaper aimed at the black community, edited and published by Dunbar.

His first collection of poetry, Oak and Ivy, was published in 1892 and attracted the attention of James Whitcomb Riley, the popular "Hoosier Poet". Both Riley and Dunbar wrote poems in both standard English and dialect. His second book, Majors and Minors (1895) brought him national fame and the patronage of William Dean Howells, the novelist and critic and editor of Harper's Weekly. After Howells' praise, his first two books were combined as Lyrics of Lowly Life and Dunbar started on a career of international literary fame. He moved to Washington, D.C., in the LeDroit Park neighborhood. While in Washington, he attended Howard University.

He kept a lifelong friendship with the Wrights, and was also associated with Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. Brand Whitlock was also described as a close friend.[2] He was honored with a ceremonial sword by President Theodore Roosevelt.

He wrote a dozen books of poetry, four books of short stories, five novels, and a play. He also wrote lyrics for In Dahomey - the first musical written and performed entirely by African-Americans to appear on Broadway in 1903; the musical comedy successfully toured England and America over a period of four years - one of the more successful theatrical productions of its time.[3] His essays and poems were published widely in the leading journals of the day. His work appeared in Harper's Weekly, the Saturday Evening Post, the Denver Post, Current Literature and a number of other publications. During his life, considerable emphasis was laid on the fact that Dunbar was of pure black descent, with no white ancestors ever.

Dunbar's work is known for its colorful language and use of dialect, and a conversational tone, with a brilliant rhetorical structure.

Dunbar traveled to England in 1897 to recite his works on the London literary circuit. He met the brilliant young black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor who some of his poems to music and who was influenced by Dunbar to use African and American Negro songs and tunes in future compositions.

After returning from England, Dunbar married Alice Ruth Moore in 1898. A graduate of Straight University (now Dillard University) in New Orleans, her most famous works include a short story entitled "Violets". She and her husband also wrote books of poetry as companion pieces. An account of their love, life and marriage was depicted in a play by Kathleen McGhee-Anderson titled Oak and Ivy.

Dunbar took a job at the Library of Congress in Washington. In 1900, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and moved to Colorado with his wife on the advice of his doctors. Dunbar died at age 33.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received a copy from the publisher via a Netgalley giveaway.

Prior to reading this collection, I read Dunbar before, his “Frederick Douglass” for instance. I hadn’t realized, however, how absolutely lovely and brilliant his nature poetry is. Or how snarky he can be.

Or how he even wrote a power about passion, love, and respect – “Passion and Love”, which is a somewhat strange read – sounding like forerunner for the #MeToo but contradictory to a degree considering his beating his wife nearly to death.

This collection is the complete poems. I hadn’t heard of Mint Editions before, but they are a no frills publisher of classics. So a no-frills edition – no introduction or footnotes. This edition is good, the copy is clean. There is a table of contents, but I do wish there was index. To be fair, this lack of an index seems to happen in various affordable imprints.

Dunbar is known for his use colloquial dialect. While this might make reading some of his poems difficult/harder. It is well worth it for the representation of a life that was.

His poems outside of the ones about nature or love, also deal with issues such as the Terror that occurred during Reconstruction, or about daily life (including eating possum). There are also several charming poems about plays and novels, in particular the connection of the two and the reader/viewer. His poems on love, and, in particular the cost of love are good as well.

But the nature poetry. He wrote a poem about a sparrow. A really good poem about sparrows.

There is also a poem that makes me think of an M. R. James story.

Then there is the poem about apples that works in Eden and Troy.

Dunbar should be more widely read, and this complete collection is an excellent and affordable place to start.

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some spectacular poems in this books.
Even just one would give it a 5-star rating as far as I'm concerned.

[cey · Rating 5 out of 5]

adored it very much

[Miss Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the definitive edition of America's first African-American poet's work, as it brings together all of Dunbar's poems and well worth a read.

Dunbar's short stories are also excellent examples of early 20th century American literature, with wonderful local character and dialect, both of which are seen throughout his poetry.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dunbar uses simple repetitive rhymes. At his best, images or wit press against the simplicity. At his worst, the poems read like jingles.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

recommended by Louis L'amour in Education of a Wandering Man

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not read many poetry books and, in truth, I have not read a poetry book in many years. Poetry should be read in stages when it is easier to absorb what the author may be trying to convey. This book took a while and I should have read another book while reading this one.

I enjoyed the book. I thought it was well written poetry of the African-American experience in the United States. Dunbar poetically writes of the many aspects of the human spirt --- happiness, joy, sorrow, love, courtship, marital relationships, family, work.

The book was first published in 1895, so it was able to relate aspects of life as a slave through poetry. Some of poems are written in the slave dialect, which takes some time read. In fact, because of that dialect, for me, it was necessary to read some of the poems several times. Some of them of fun the read and others are cause of great sorrow. Dunbar refers to many of his themes as lyrics, perhaps relating to the style which he wished to have poems viewed. An example: sunshine and shadow; lowly life; hearthside.

I think that there were so many themes of the poems that anyone can take away something from them. Some of my favorites were Accountability, Ode to Ethiopia, An Antebellum Sermon, Keep a Pluggin' Away, The Dillante: A Modern Type, After While, One Life, We Wear the Mask, The Party, The Oak Tree, The Paradox. Dunbar pays tribute to notable individuals of the time Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the soldiers of Fort Pillow, The Colored Soldiers, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Whittier, Robert Gould Shaw.

Poetry can be somewhat complex, especially in the what the author wants to convey. It is worth taking the time. I felt that this book is worth having in anyone's collection. A companion book that I read before reading Dunbar's book of poetry was "Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Courtship and Marriage Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore," the disintegration of the marriage between two complex personalities.

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I often do with poetry, I took my time reading The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Most of the poems are short and I read two or three each evening over the course of several months.

Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872. He was the first African-American poet to earn national distinction and acceptance. Active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he wrote poems, short stories, and novels, as well as the lyrics for a musical comedy. Dunbar died way too soon in 1906, at the age of 33, a victim of tuberculosis, which then had no cure.

Very much a product of his time. His poems are formulaic, highly-crafted, and bound to standard poetry patterns. He was especially fond of sonnets. His style, diction, and word choice are a bit flighty, ornate, and flowery. His narratives are nostalgic vignettes that accentuate family life. Much of his work was written in the Negro dialect associated with the antebellum South,

Keep variety in your reading habits. If you don’t already, add some poetry and plays to your list.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the title suggests, this is all the published poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. With a career pre-dating the Harlem Renaissance, during which lyric poetry ruled the roost, Dunbar may not be as well-known today as several of the African American poets who came later, but it's not for being any less masterful.

The collection includes a wide variety of lyric forms from simple quatrains to intermediate length poems of several pages. The content and tones also vary, and there is often a sense of whimsy in the poems that goes beyond just being lyrical in form. Dunbar wrote both in dialect and in standard English. He was a big fan of James Whitcomb Riley's dialectal work, as a poem in Riley's honor attests. The dialect poems are easy enough to follow and are a pleasure to read. Dunbar was by no means limited to dialectal writing; he also wrote in Standard English cleverly, and the juxtaposition of his very "proper" poems and the dialectal ones shows a great range.

I'd highly recommend this collection for poetry readers, particularly those who enjoy lyric and dialectal poems.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I kept this book by my bedside and slowly made my way through over the course of about a year. Dunbar was a versatile poet and his works can touch your heartstrings or make you smile or make you think. He wrote a lot of dialect poetry that can be uncomfortable to read in the twenty-first century - some of it is advancing the stereotype of the 'happy slave' or 'happy sharecropper.' But a lot of it is simply about the pleasures and griefs of poor farm life. And he wrote a lot of non-dialect poetry as well. There is so much in his poetry - seek it out if you haven't read much of it! Dunbar wrote short, beautiful works. They're easy to understand, fun to read, and full of emotion.

[Natalie]

While not good, his poems are fun to read. I don’t think the poems themselves are memorable, but his style is. They’re unique in the way that he has some poems in standardized English, and others in black dialect. He reflects the Reconstruction era in a way unlike I’ve ever read.
Yes, his poems do sound a little juvenile, especially if you read one aloud. There’s almost a Dr. Seuss type element to them. But that’s what made them fun for me. I didn’t have to take myself too seriously. (Though I’m sure in Dunbar’s time, he did)
And I was surprised to find that Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” comes from his poem “Sympathy”. Fun fact!

[Mary Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had not heard of this author, ever, in my college or high school time. I only discovered him while visiting Wright Brother monuments and museums located in Dayton, OH. I decided that I needed to learn about this man. I was amazed at his work. Not that he could do this work, but that his work, while it is poetry, it is a great quantity and it covers so many different things in his life. It covers love, laughter, death, work, slavery. It is in a dialect and plain English. He shows such emotion in his work. I read a little every day and just thoroughly enjoyed this work.

[Melanie Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have collection to get the full range of PLD's talents. You get love poems and seasons, music and slave life. You get dialect and standard English. You get funny and sad. It took me ages to get through the whole book because I would take breaks, not because this isn't a highly-readable work.

Get a copy for free at Project Gutenberg.

[Eugene Downing, Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable book of poetry, great way to end a day! Memories of a nobler way with words.

[j.e.rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There are too few of flowers---too little of song."

[Ashton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dunbar's poetry is deeply moving. One of those books I just read parts of when I feel like it - not one I was at all able to read start to finish.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Have I not paid for my love with my life?"

Some poems hit hard and some poems were just fucking weird.

[Matt Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Now in our time, when poets rhyme For money, fun, or fashion, 'Tis good to hear one voice so clear That thrills with honest passion."

The excerpt above could serve as a thesis statement for the best of Paul Lawrence Dunbar's poetry, including "Sympathy", "Ode to Ethiopia," and "The Haunted Oak": like many of his best poems in this collection they use standard English to convey the author's anger and frustration with the continuing effects of racism in his own lifetime. Even the dialectical poems are worthy of recognition for their commitment to capturing the voice of a people in a more dignified way than had been attempted up to that point. Unlike the standard English poems, they don't seem interested in addressing racism overall, but they do seem to attempt to humanize people of color by allowing them agency in their own poems. These characteristics make the dialectical poems both imperfect and important.

While many of the dialectical poems have been seen as problematic, they helped bring the clear, honest voice of a skilled and, at his best, passionate poet to light for over a century. I'm glad to see this, and I know I'm not the only one. Langston Huges and Maya Angelou are among the names of deservingly celebrated authors who appreciated and built on his work.Thanks to Paul Lawrence Dunbar and other poets who found inspiration in his work, American literature has become richer than it otherwise would have been.

[Pachyderm Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are considered the 'grandparents" of modern American poetry today, perhaps it might be safely stated that Paul Lawrence Dunbar, in tandem with Phyllis Wheatley, ought be considered the "grandparents" of African–American poetry. In terms of the content offered to readers of this volume, including both the searing and oftentimes sentimental subjects and themes of Dunbar's "dialect poems," Dunbar himself would prove to be a most noteworthy contender as the "grandfather" of African–American or "Negro" poetry as it were.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked a great many of his poems. Including, Antebellum Sermon, Colored Soldiers, The Old Front Gate, the Colored Band and When they listed colored soldiers.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good collection., historically and literarily relevant.