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Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar was the fi
rst African American poet to garner national critical acclaim. Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872 in Dayton, Ohio, to Matilda and Joshua Dunbar, they are both natives of Kentucky. Both of his parents were slaves, his father escaped from slavery and joined the 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment during the Civil War. Dunbar wrote a large body of dialect, poems, essays, standard English poems, novels and short stories before he died at the age of 33. His work often addressed the difficulties encountered by members of his race and the efforts African Americans to achieve equality in America. He was praised both by the prominent literary contemporaries. Dunbar's inspiration write poetry came from his mother, he began reciting and writing poetry as early as the age of six.In 1892 Dunbar published his first poem collection called Oak and Ivy. though his book was received well locally, Dunbar still had to work as an elevator operator to help pay off his debt to his publisher. He sold his book for a dollar to people who came in contact with his work, however, his reputation spread. In 1893, he was invited to recite at the world's fair, where he met Frederick Douglass, the re-owned abolitionist who rose from slavery to political and literary prominence in America. Douglass called Dunbar "the most promising young colored man in America."
Dunbar continued writing wit the help of Attorney Charles A. Thatcher and Psychiatrist Henry A. Tobey. Both of them were fans of Dunbar's work, they arranged for him to recite his poem at local libraries and literary gathering. Tobey and Thatcher also funded the publication of Dunbar's second book, Mayors and Minors. It was Dunbar's second book that propelled him to national fame. William Dean Howells, a novelist and widely respected literary critic who edited Harpers weekly, praised Dunbar's book in one of his weekly columns and launched Dunbar's name into the most respected literary circles across the country. A New York Publishing firm, Dodd Mean combined Dunbar's first two books and published them as lyrics of a lowly life. The book included an introduction by Howells. In 1897, Dunbar traveled to England to recite his works on the London literary circuit. He was nationally known across the Atlantic.
After returning to England, Dunbar married a young writer by the name of Alice Ruth Moore. She was a teacher and proponent if racial and gender equality. Dunbar took a job at the library of congress in Washington, D.C. He found the work tiresome, however, and it is believed the library's dust contributed to his worsening case of tuberculosis. He worked there for only a year before quiting to write and recite full time. In 1902, Dunbar and his wife separated. Depression stemming from the end of his marriage and declining health drove him to a dependence on alcohol, which further damaged his health. He continued to write, however, he ultimately produced twelve books of poetry, four books of short stories, a play and five novels. His work appeared in Harper's weekly, the Sunday's Evening Post , the Denver Post, Current Literature and a number of other Magazines and journals. Because Dunbar's steadily deteriorating health, he returned to his mothers home in Dayton, Ohio, where he died February 9, 1906.
Dunbar's work is known for its colorful language and use of dialect has inspired Americans all over the world with his style of writing. During his time he was one of the first African Americans poets able to cross over to the main stream audience, he was enormously popular during his life time.The two poems that I thought captured his true essence are "We Wear the Mask" and "Sympathy."
"We Wear the Mask"
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
In “We Wear Mask” Paul Laurence Dunbar conveys a message to his audience that you can’t judge a book by its cover nor judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes. It has been done many times when a person may appear one way on the outside, but may be feeling the total opposite on the inside. He may be masking his true emotions with a false appearance. The African-American slaves of the early United States are a prime example of how emotions can be repressed. This group of people was treated with such disrespect and humiliation that it is understandable why they would mask their true thoughts and their emotions. To make their daily lives easier, they spoke and act the way their owners depicted. At one point their lives were taken from them. But, there were some things that could never be taken away from them: their inner strength and their spirituality. No matter how a slave was treated, how hard he had to work, or how little he had, he did have total control of his own thoughts and beliefs. Those things could never be taken from him.
This poem cries out with the hurt that African-Americans, throughout history, Suffered with. To be able to endure this daily persecution, these people had to draw on their own inner strength. When Dunbar wrote, “with torn and bleeding hearts we smile,” it is obvious of the agony felt and how a smile is sometimes worn in order to camouflage ones true emotions. A deep, religious faith was a saving grace to these people as a whole. One spirituality can carry them through even most dreadful situations. This idea is evident when Dunbar wrote, “we smile, but, O great Christ, our cries to thee from tortured souls arise.” When all else had failed, slaves could pray and feel that God had heard, their prayers answered, and their hearts relieved. We all have hide our emotions at one time or another. We put on false faces and pretend for many different reasons. One should learn from the past, live today to its fullest, and take off that mask so that its clear to see what lies ahead.
To complement the struggle of "We Wear the Mask," "Sympathy" conveys a message that even as simple as a bird, it is still in bondage and is trying to get free from its prison as well.
"Sympathy"
I know what the caged bird feels.
Ah me, when the sun is bright on the upland slopes,
when the wind blows soft through the springing grass
and the river floats like a sheet of glass,
when the first bird sings and the first bud ops,
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 bow aswing.
And the blood still throbs in the old, old scars
and they pulse again with a keener sting.
I know why he beats his wing.
I know why the caged bird sings.
Ah, me, when its wings are bruised and its bosom sore.
It beats its bars and would be free.
It's not a carol of joy or glee,
but a prayer that it sends from its heart's deep core,
a plea that upward to heaven it flings.
I know why the caged bird sings.
In the first stanza, he uses the bird as a symbol of bondage. He explains about the various elements of nature, the bright sun, the shimmering river, the gentle breeze that a caged bird dreams of and expresses his sympathy for the bird. In the second stanza, he uses the bar of the jail which redden due the blood oozing from the birds scars. Dunbar expresses that "I know Why" this intensity of his feelings added a musical touch to the poem. In the third stanza, he explains that the cage bird sings not out of joy,but to remind us of the severe trauma its facing. Moreover this song is an ode to God which the bird flings toward heaven out of sheer frustration. I think this poems expressions, is just like "We Wear the Mask", full of feeling and emotion, telling a story on how good it will feel to be free.`Although Dunbar lived to be only 33 years old, he was prolific, writing short stories, novels, librettos, plays, songs and essays as well as the poetry for which he became well known. He was popular with black and white readers of his day, and his works are celebrated today by scholars and school children alike.
Work cited
Dunbar, Paul L." We Wear the Mask." Literature and the writing process.Ed. Elizabeth McManhan,Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2002.499
Dunbar, Paul L."Sympathy." http://www.web-books.com/classics/Poetry/Anthology/Dunbar_PL/Sympathy.htm
Braxton, Joanne M.ed. The collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Charlottesville:up of Virginia, 1993.
Wagner, Jean. Black Poets of the United States: from Paul Laurence Dunbar to Langston Hughes. Kenneth Douglass, trans. Chicago: up of Chicago,1973.
Martin, Jay and Gossie H. Hudson,eds. The Paul Laurence Dunbar Reader. New York: Dodd, Mean,&Co.,1975
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