Selected Poems

Dialect poems by one of the nineteenth century's most talented African American lyricists

Paul Laurence Dunbar was "the most promising young colored man" in nineteenth-century America, according to Frederick Douglass, and subsequently one of the most controversial. His plantation lyrics, written while he was an elevator boy in Ohio, established Dunbar as the premier writer of dialect poetry and garnered him international recognition. More than a vernacular lyricist, Dunbar was also a master of classical poetic forms, who helped demonstrate to post-Civil War America that literary genius did not reside solely in artists of European descent. William Dean Howells called Dunbar's dialect poems "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."

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1, 700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Selected PoemsIntroduction
Bibliography
Suggestions for Further Reading
From Oak and Ivy (1893)
A Banjo Song
A Career
Columbian Ode
James Whitcomb Riley
Life
Lullaby
Melancholia
My Sort o' Man
Ode to Ethiopia
Sympathy
The Ol' Tunes
The SeedlingFrom Majors and Minors (1895)
After the Quarrel
Alice
Ballad
By the Stream
The Change Has Come
Changing Time
The Colored Soldiers
A Corn-Song
Dawn
Dirge
Disappointed
Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soother the Weary Eyes
Frederick Douglass
A Frolic
He Had His Dream
Hymn
Invitation to Love
Ione
The Master-Player
Ode for Memorial Day
One Life
The Poet and His Song
A Prayer
Retort
Ships that Pass in the Night
A Summer's Night
We Wear the Mask
To PfrimmerFrom Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896)
Accountability
An Ante-Bellum Sermon
The Corn-Stalk Fiddle
The Lawyers' Ways
Religion
After a Visit
The Spellin'-Bee
Keep A-Pluggin' away
An Easy-Goin' Feller
The Wooing
When de Co'n Pone's Hot
Discovered
The Delinquent
A Confidence
The PartyFrom Poems of Cabin and Field (1899)
The Deserted Plantation
Little Brown Baby
Christmas Is A-Comin'From Lyrics of the Hearthside (1899)
Love's Apotheosis
The Paradox
The Right to Die
Behind the Arras
A Hymn
Dream Song I
Dream Song II
The King Is Dead
Theology
Resignation
Thou Art My Lute
The Phantom Kiss
The Crisis
Alexander Crummell Dead
Sonnet
Misapprehension
For the Man Who Fails
Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Warrior's Prayer
The Voice of the Banjo
A Choice
The Real Question
Jilted
Chrismus on the Plantation
Foolin' wid de Seasons
A Death Song
Jealous
Parted
A Letter
At Candle-Lightin' Time
How Lucy Backslid
ProtestFrom When Malindy Sings (1903)
When Malindy Sings
The Colored Band
In Memory of Martha
The Tryst
The Boogah Man
Noddin' by de Fire
My Sweet Brown Gal
In the Morning
The Plantation Child's Lullaby
Curiosity
Opportunity
Puttin' the Baby Away
Faith
The Fisher Child's LullabyFrom Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903)
Joggin' Erlong
In May
Dreams
The Dove
The Valse
Song
Inspiration
When Dey 'Listed Colored Soldiers
Lincoln
To a Captious Critic
The Poet
A Spiritual
W'en I Gits Home
The Unsung Heroes
The Pool
Speakin' at de Cou't House
Black Samson of Brandywine
Douglass
Booker T. Washington
Philosophy
The Debt
By Rugged Ways
To the South
The Haunted Oak
Weltschmertz
Robert Gould Shaw
A Love Song
A Negro Love Song
The Fount of Tears
At the TavernFrom Li'l' Gal (1904)
Li'l' Gal
A Plea
Soliloquy of a Turkey
When Sam'l SingsFrom Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905)
A Boy's Summer Song
The Sand-Man
Johnny Speaks
Scamp
A Christmas Folksong
The Farm Child's Lullaby
Hope
The Awakening
A Musical
Twell de Night Is Pas'
Compensation
Anchored
Yesterday and To-morrow
At Sunset Time
At Loafing-Holt
When a Feller's Itchin' to Be Spanked
A Love Letter
Trouble in de Kitchen
The Quilting
Forever
Parted
ChristmasFrom Howdy, Howdy, Howdy (1905)
"Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!"
Encouragement
TwilightFrom Joggin' Erlong (1906)
The CaptureUncollected Poems
Emancipation
Welcome Address
Comrade
Love Is a Star
The Making Up
A Toast to Dayton
Sold a C. H. S. Episode
After the Struggle
The Builder
Lullaby (II)Index of Titles
Index of First Lines