Reviews for Poems

The average rating for Poems based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-01-16 00:00:00 Sue Wellings "Paul Laurence Dunbar stands out as the first poet from the Negro race in the United States to show a combined mastery over poetic material and poetic technique, to reveal innate literary distinction in what he wrote, and to maintain a high level of performance. He was the first to rise to a height from which he could take a perspective view of his own race. He was the first to see objectively its humor, its superstitions, its shortcomings; the first to feel sympathetically its heart-wounds, its yearnings, its aspirations, and to voice them all in a purely literary form." - James Weldon Johnson, Introduction to The Book of American Negro Poetry "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." - From the introduction by William Dean Howells. "A song is but a little thing, And yet what joy it is to sing! In hours of toil it gives me zest, And when at eve I long for rest; When cows come home along the bars, And in the fold I hear the bell, As Night, the shepherd, herds his stars, I sing my song, and all is well. There are no ears to hear my lays, No lips to lift a word of praise; But still, with faith unfaltering, I live and laugh and love and sing. What matters yon unheeding throng? They cannot feel my spirit's spell, Since life is sweet and love is long, I sing my song, and all is well." - first two stanzas of "The Poet and His Song" I had read this book years ago in college, but had forgotten how great it was. I'm glad that I have revisited it. Paul Laurence Dunbar did not live a long time, but made an immediate impact in African-American literature that would sustain itself until Langston Hughes' ascendancy. He was part of a literary explosion occurring around the turn-of-the-20th century. His poetry is standard of what American's did at that time, but what made him stand-out was his style. Dunbar wrote in three different dialects of English. I have already talked briefly about Paul Laurence Dunbar in my review of The Black Poets, but now I will talk a little more in-depth and we can look at some more of his poetry. The three "dialects" of English that Dunbar uses are Standard English (of the late-Victorian era), African-American Vernacular English and the old Midwest dialects of southern Ohio and Indiana. Here is a recital of three poems using the Mid-West, Standard and AAVE dialects, respectively, by the legendary baritone William Warfield: Dunbar, whose parents had been enslaved in neighboring Kentucky before the American Civil War, first started publishing poetry in high school (he was the only black student there). He got his first two smaller volumes of poetry printed at the print shop ran by one of his school friends Orville Wright (yes THAT Orville Wright). One of the poems from those volumes, Ode To Ethiopia, went viral and made Dunbar a household name. That poem was included in this volume his first major volume of poetry. I knew of his standard and "negro" dialect poems, but I had not been really exposed to his Mid-West poems until I read this.Ther' ain't no use in all this strife, An' hurryin', pell-mell, right thro' life. I don't believe in goin' too fast To see what kind o' road you 've passed. It ain't no mortal kind o' good, 'N' I would n't hurry ef I could. I like to jest go joggin' 'long, To limber up my soul with song; To stop awhile 'n' chat the men, 'N' drink some cider now an' then. Do' want no boss a-standin' by To see me work; I allus try To do my dooty right straight up, An' earn what fills my plate an' cup. An' ez fur boss, I 'll be my own, I like to jest be let alone; To plough my strip an' tend my bees, An' do jest like I doggoned please. My head's all right, an' my heart's meller, But I 'm a easy-goin' feller. - "An Easy Goin'Feller" Dunbar fame put him in contact with many prominent African-Americans of the day, but he was never able to achieve the post-graduate education he wanted. He was in contact with the two biggest Afro-Americans of the day Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. Du Bois. He even wrote an essay about them and other personalities at the turn of the 20th century called Representative American Negroes. He was publishing his poetry at the same time that Charles W. Chesnutt was publishing his stories and Scott Joplin was writing his compositions. Now I've never been the biggest fan of the black dialect poems, but they are not that bad. I especially am partial to Maya Angelou's interpretation of "A Negro Love Song": Seen my lady home las' night, Jump back, honey, jump back. Hel' huh han' an' sque'z it tight, Jump back, honey, jump back. Hyeahd huh sigh a little sigh, Seen a light gleam f'om huh eye, An' a smile go flittin' by' Jump back, honey, jump back. Hyeahd de win' blow thoo de pine, Jump back, honey, jump back. Mockin'-bird was singin' fine, Jump back, honey, jump back. An' my hea't was beatin' so, When I reached my lady's do', Dat I could n't ba' to go' Jump back, honey, jump back. Put my ahm aroun' huh wais', Jump back, honey, jump back. Raised huh lips an' took a tase, Jump back, honey, jump back. Love me, honey, love me true? Love me well ez I love you? An' she answe'd, "'Cose I do"' Jump back, honey, jump back.It is amazing that Paul Laurence Dunbar is not more well known now--I regard this as a testament to how the poets of the Harlem Renaissance on built on the foundation of Dunbar, especially Langston Hughes. But if folks no longer read Dunbar past "Sympathy ("I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings") or We Wear the Mask, his legacy can be found in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio and in African-American neighborhoods all over the United States. What I like about this volume of poetry is that it is so local. Besides one poem dedicated to Frederick Douglass, most of the people and places referenced are of Dayton, Ohio or his parents' state of Kentucky. In addition, because of the impact he made in African-American literature during his brief life, when he suddenly died of tuberculosis at the age of 33, black public schools across the country named or renamed schools after Dunbar. Both my mother's and father's hometown have schools named after him; paternal-grandmother went to Washington, D.C.'s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (originally the oldest black high school in the United States of America). "He scribbles some in prose and verse, And now and then he prints it; He paints a little,'gathers some Of Nature's gold and mints it. He plays a little, sings a song, Acts tragic roles, or funny; He does, because his love is strong, But not, oh, not for money! He studies almost everything From social art to science; A thirsty mind, a flowing spring, Demand and swift compliance. He looms above the sordid crowd' At least through friendly lenses; While his mamma looks pleased and proud, And kindly pays expenses." - "THE DILETTANTE: A MODERN TYPE"

Review # 2 was written on 2021-03-02 00:00:00 Steve Marcy Almost all of these poems appear in Majors and Minors and/or Oak and Ivy, but I'm not complaining, cuz good poems deserve to be read more than once. ("Conscience and Remorse" could be read as a summary of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Just sayin'.)