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

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

DEDICATIONS

LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE

MY MOTHER

LYRICS OF THE HEARTHSIDE

ALICE

LYRICS OF LOVE AND LAUGHTER

MISS CATHERINE IMPEY

LYRICS OF SUNSHINE AND SHADOW

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]

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

A bee that was searching for sweets one day [19]
A blue-bell springs upon the ledge [26]
A cloud fell down from the heavens [288]
A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in [8]
A hush is over all the teeming lists [6]
A knock is at her door, but she is weak [73]
A life was mine full of the close concern [103]
A lilt and a swing [226]
A little bird with plumage brown [78]
A little dreaming by the way [114]
A lover whom duty called over the wave [29]
A maiden wept and, as a comforter [11]
A man of low degree was sore oppressed [111]
A song for the unsung heroes who rose in the country's need [196]
A song is but a little thing [4]
A youth went farming up and down [55]
Across the hills and down the narrow ways [120]
Adown the west a golden glow [263]
Ah, Douglass, we have fall'n on evil days [208]
Ah, I have changed, I do not know [270]
Ah, love, my love is like a cry in the night [222]
Ah me, it is cold and chill [186]
Ah, Nora, my Nora, the light fades away [62]
Ah, yes, 't is sweet still to remember [31]
Ah, yes, the chapter ends to-day [101]
Ain't it nice to have a mammy [239]
Ain't nobody tol' you not a wo'd a-tall [181]
Air a-gittin' cool an' coolah [77]
All de night long twell de moon goes down [253]
All hot and grimy from the road [224]
Along by the river of ruin [265]
An angel robed in spotless white [65]
An old man planted and dug and tended [60]
An old, worn harp that had been played [17]
As a quiet little seedling [12]
As in some dim baronial hall restrained [94]
As lone I sat one summer's day [122]
As some rapt gazer on the lowly earth [106]
Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust [103]
At the golden gate of song [179]
Aye, lay him in his grave, the old dead year! [105]

Back to the breast of thy mother [113]
Because I had loved so deeply [256]
Because you love me I have much achieved [238]
Bedtime's come fu' little boys [144]
Belated wanderer of the ways of spring [179]
Beyond the years the answer lies [41]
Bird of my lady's bower [19]
Bones a-gittin' achy [153]
Break me my bounds, and let me fly [285]
Breezes blowin' middlin' brisk [78]
Bring me the livery of no other man [92]
By Mystic's banks I held my dream [204]
By rugged ways and thro' the night [215]
By the pool that I see in my dreams, dear love [198]
By the stream I dream in calm delight, and watch as in a glass [50]

Caught Susanner whistlin'; well [149]
Come away to dreamin' town [254]
Come, drink a stirrup cup with me [125]
Come, essay a sprightly measure [97]
Come on walkin' wid me, Lucy; 't ain't no time to mope erroun' [164]
Come to the pane, draw the curtain apart [120]
Come when the nights are bright with stars [61]
Cool is the wind, for the summer is waning [163]
Cover him over with daisies white [258]

Daih's a moughty soothin' feelin' [187]
Darling, my darling, my heart is on the wing [202]
Days git wa'm an' wa'mah [239]
De axes has been ringin' in de woods de blessid day [143]
De breeze is blowin' 'cross de bay [145]
De 'cession's stahted on de gospel way [194]
De da'kest hour, dey allus say [165]
De dog go howlin' 'long de road [247]
De night creep down erlong de lan' [166]
De ol' time's gone, de new time's hyeah [192]
De sun hit shine an' de win' hit blow [256]
De times is mighty stirrin' 'mong de people up ouah way [158]
De trees is bendin' in de sto'm [193]
De way t'ings come, hit seems to me [225]
De win' is blowin' wahmah [236]
De win' is hollahin' "Daih you" to de shuttahs an' de fiah [174]
Dear critic, who my lightness so deplores [189]
Dear heart, good-night! [23]
Dear Miss Lucy: I been t'inkin' dat I'd write you long fo' dis [151]
Deep in my heart that aches with the repression [25]
Dey been speakin' at de cou't-house [205]
Dey had a gread big pahty down to Tom's de othah night [83]
Dey is snow upon the meddahs [168]
Dey is times in life when Nature [57]
Dey was oncet a awful quoil 'twixt de skillet an' de pot [268]
Dey was talkin' in de cabin, dey was talkin' in de hall [182]
Dey's a so't o' threatenin' feelin' in de blowin' of de breeze [171]
Dinah stan' befo' de glass [206]
Dis is gospel weathah sho'— [26]
Do' a-stan'in' on a jar, fiah a-shinin' thoo [196]
Dolly sits a-quilting by her mother, stitch by stitch [240]
Done are the toils and the wearisome marches [22]
Dream days of fond delight and hours [287]
Dream on, for dreams are sweet [100]
Driftwood gathered here and there [277]
Duck come switchin' 'cross de lot [275]

Ef dey's anyt'ing dat riles me [141]
Ef you's only got de powah fe' to blow a little whistle [250]
Eight of 'em hyeah all tol' an' yet [243]
Emblem of blasted hope and lost desire [115]
Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes [3]

Folks ain't got no right to censuah othah folks about dey habits [5]
Folks is talkin' 'bout de money, 'bout de silvah an' de gold [135]
Four hundred years ago a tangled waste [47]
Fu' de peace o' my eachin' heels, set down [222]

God has his plans, and what if we [81]
"Good-bye," I said to my conscience [31]
Goo'-by, Jinks, I got to hump [64]
Good hunting!—aye, good hunting [237]
Good-night, my love, for I have dreamed of thee [93]
Granny's gone a-visitin' [242]
Grass commence a-comin' [176]
Gray are the pages of record [205]
Gray is the palace where she dwells [180]
G'way an' quit dat noise, Miss Lucy [82]

Hain't you see my Mandy Lou [173]
He had his dream, and all through life [61]
He loved her, and through many years [129]
He sang of life serenely sweet [191]
He scribbles some in prose and verse [49]
Heart of my heart, the day is chill [207]
Heart of the Southland, heed me pleading now [216]
Heel and toe, heel and toe [170]
Hello, ole man, you're a-gittin' gray [80]
Hit's been drizzlin' an' been sprinklin' [180]
Home agin, an' home to stay [259]
How shall I woo thee to win thee, mine own? [289]
How sweet the music sounded [284]
How's a man to write a sonnet, can you tell [114]
Hurt was the nation with a mighty wound [184]
Hyeah come Cæsar Higgins [145]
Hyeah dat singin' in de medders [208]

"I am but clay," the sinner plead [114]
I am no priest of crooks nor creeds [38]
I am the mother of sorrows [89]
I be'n down in ole Kentucky [42]
I been t'inkin' 'bout de preachah; whut he said de othah night [212]
I did not know that life could be so sweet [252]
I done got 'uligion, honey, an' I's happy ez a king [146]
I don't believe in 'ristercrats [140]
I grew a rose once more to please mine eyes [13]
I grew a rose within a garden fair [12]
I had not known before [240]
I has hyeahd o' people dancin' an' I's hyeahd o' people singin' [156]
I have no fancy for that ancient cant [94]
I have seen full many a sight [188]
I held my heart so far from harm [255]
I found you and I lost you [251]
I know a man [235]
I know my love is true [58]
I know what the caged bird feels, alas! [102]
I never shall furgit that night when father hitched up Dobbin [42]
I sit upon the old sea wall [115]
I stand above the city's rush and din [275]
I stood by the shore at the death of day [69]
I think that though the clouds be dark [53]
I was not; now I am—a few days hence [17]
If Death should claim me for her own to-day [210]
If life were but a dream, my Love [75]
If the muse were mine to tempt it [50]
If thro' the sea of night which here surrounds me [256]
If 'twere fair to suppose [258]
If you could sit with me beside the sea to-day [21]
In a small and lonely cabin out of noisy traffic's way [124]
In de dead of night I sometimes [260]
In Life's Red Sea with faith I plant my feet [110]
In the east the morning comes [199]
In the heavy earth the miner [107]
In the forenoon's restful quiet [95]
In the silence of my heart [110]
In this sombre garden close [209]
In the tents of Akbar [223]
In this old garden, fair, I walk to-day [111]
I's a-gittin' weary of de way dat people do [244]
I's boun' to see my gal to-night [142]
I's feelin' kin' o' lonesome in my little room to-night [202]
It is as if a silver chord [216]
It may be misery not to sing at all [225]
It was Chrismus Eve, I mind hit fu' a mighty gloomy day [137]
It's all a farce,—these tales they tell [56]
It's hot to-day. The bees is buzzin' [279]
It's moughty tiahsome layin' 'roun' [195]
I've a humble little motto [46]
I've always been a faithful man [267]
I've been list'nin' to them lawyers [22]
I've been watchin' of 'em, parson [39]
I've journeyed 'roun' consid'able, a-seein' men an' things [147]

Jes' lak toddy wahms you thoo' [148]
Just whistle a bit, if the day be dark [98]

Key and bar, key and bar [201]
Kiss me, Miami, thou most constant one! [277]
Know you, winds that blow your course [40]

Lay me down beneaf de willers in de grass [142]
Lead gently, Lord, and slow [98]
Let me close the eyes of my soul [261]
Let those who will stride on their barren roads [214]
'Lias! 'Lias! Bless de Lawd! [190]
Like sea-washed sand upon the shore [202]
Like the blush upon the rose [282]
Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes [134]
Little brown face full of smiles [267]
Little lady at de do' [177]
Long had I grieved at what I deemed abuse [106]
Long since, in sore distress, I heard one pray [123]
Long time ago, we too set out [119]
Long years ago, within a distant clime [104]
Love hath the wings of the butterfly [117]
Love is the light of the world, my dear [231]
Love me. I care not what the circling years [89]
Love used to carry a bow, you know [258]
Lucy done gone back on me [136]

Mammy's in de kitchen, an' de do' is shet [241]
Mastah drink his ol' Made'a [213]
Men may sing of their Havanas, elevating to the stars [129]
Mother's gone a-visitin' to spend a month er two [79]
My cot was down by a cypress grove [8]
My heart to thy heart [13]
My lady love lives far away [288]
My muvver's ist the nicest one [247]
My neighbor lives on the hill [192]
My soul, lost in the music's mist [76]

Night, dim night, and it rains, my love, it rains [227]
Night is for sorrow and dawn is for joy [90]
Not o'er thy dust let there be spent [18]
No matter what you call it [287]
Not they who soar, but they who plod [18]
Not to the midnight of the gloomy past [214]

O li'l' lamb out in de col' [133]
O Lord, the hard-won miles [11]
O Mother Race! to thee I bring [15]
October is the treasurer of the year [63]
Oh, de clouds is mighty heavy [169]
Oh, de grubbin'-hoe's a-rustin' in de co'nah [67]
Oh, de weathah it is balmy an' de breeze is sighin' low [207]
Oh, dere's lots o' keer an' trouble [20]
Oh for the breath of the briny deep [92]
Oh, I am hurt to death, my Love [72]
Oh, I des received a letter f'om de sweetest little gal [266]
Oh, I haven't got long to live, for we all [48]
Oh, summer has clothed the earth [91]
Oh the breeze is blowin' balmy [262]
Oh, the day has set me dreaming [107]
Oh, the little bird is rocking in the cradle of the wind [245]
Oh, the poets may sing of their Lady Irenes [26]
Oh to have you in May [166]
Oh, what shall I do? I am wholly upset [131]
Oh, who is the Lord of the land of life [268]
Oh, who would be sad tho' the sky be a-graying [236]
Oh, wind of the spring-time, oh, free wind of May [221]
On a summer's day as I sat by a stream [248]
On the wide veranda white [59]
Once Love grew bold and arrogant of air [102]
One night in my room, still and beamless [109]
Our good knight, Ted, girds his broadsword on [108]
Out in de night a sad bird moans [194]
Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing [64]
Out of my heart, one day, I wrote a song [117]
Out of my heart, one treach'rous winter's day [102]
Out of the sunshine and out of the heat [167]
Outside the rain upon the street [253]
Over the hills and the valleys of dreaming [90]

Phyllis, ah, Phyllis, my life is a gray day [74]
Place this bunch of mignonette [66]
Poor withered rose, she gave it me [286]
Pray, what can dreams avail [104]
Pray why are you so bare, so bare [219]
Prometheus stole from Heaven the sacred fire [117]

Ring out, ye bells! [278]
Round the wide earth, from the red field your valour has won [112]

Say a mass for my soul's repose, my brother [211]
Search thou my heart [116]
See dis pictyah in my han' [144]
Seems lak folks is mighty curus [139]
Seen my lady home las' night [49]
Seen you down at chu'ch las' night [60]
Shadder in de valley [226]
She gave a rose [103]
She sang, and I listened the whole song thro' [121]
She told the story, and the whole world wept [119]
She told her beads with downcast eyes [106]
She wrapped her soul in a lace of lies [240]
Silence, and whirling worlds afar [263]
Silently without my window [54]
Since I left the city's heat [263]
Slow de night's a-fallin' [186]
Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race [211]
So we, who 'we supped the selfsame cup [40]
Some folks t'inks hit's right an' p'opah [201]
Standin' at de winder [253]
Step me now a bridal measure [248]
Step wid de banjo an' glide wid de fiddle [269]
Storm and strife and stress [227]
Summah night an' sighin' breeze [132]
Summah's nice, wif sun a-shinin' [132]
Summer is de lovin' time [262]
Sunshine on de medders [168]
Sweetest of the flowers a-blooming [237]
Swing yo' lady roun' an' roun' [200]

Tek a cool night, good an' cleah [150]
Tell your love where the roses blow [238]
Temples he built, and palaces of air [100]
The air is dark, the sky is gray [65]
The change has come, and Helen sleeps [58]
The cloud looked in at the window [72]
The draft of love was cool and sweet [252]
The gray dawn on the mountain top [248]
The gray of the sea, and the gray of the sky [93]
The lake's dark breast [8]
The lark is silent in his nest [61]
The little bird sits in the nest and sings [67]
The Midnight wooed the Morning-Star [99]
The mist has left the greening plain [252]
The moon begins her stately ride [276]
The moon has left the sky, love [46]
The night is dewy as a maiden's mouth [64]
The November sun invites me [282]
The poor man went to the rich man's doors [106]
The rain streams down like harpstrings from the sky [270]
The river sleeps beneath the sky [9]
The sand-man he's a jolly old fellow [235]
The sky of brightest gray seems dark [59]
The smell of the sea in my nostrils [91]
The snow lies deep upon the ground [105]
The sun has slipped his tether [100]
The sun hath shed its kindly light [281]
The sun is low [285]
The trees bend down along the stream [249]
The wind is out in its rage to-night [244]
The wind told the little leaves to hurry [258]
The word is writ that he who runs may read [209]
The world is a snob, and the man who wins [118]
The young queen Nature, ever sweet and fair [52]
Ther' ain't no use in all this strife [49]
There are no beaten paths to Glory's height [21]
There is a heaven, for ever, day by day [106]
There's a fabulous story [246]
There's a memory keeps a-runnin' [10]
These are the days of elfs and fays [251]
They please me not—these solemn songs [125]
This is the debt I pay [213]
This is to-day, a golden summer's day [223]
This poem must be done to-day [122]
Thou arrant robber, Death! [284]
"Thou art a fool," said my head to my heart [5]
Thou art my lute, by thee I sing [109]
Thou art the soul of a summer's day [271]
Though the winds be dank [71]
Thy tones are silver melted into sound [116]
Tim Murphy's gon' walkin' wid Maggie O'Neill [261]
'Tis an old deserted homestead [283]
'Tis better to set here beside the sea [186]
'Tis fine to play [235]
To me, like hauntings of a vagrant breath [97]
Treat me nice, Miss Mandy Jane [167]
'Twas the apple that in Eden [251]
'Twas three an' thirty year ago [27]
'Twixt a smile and a tear [241]
Two little boots all rough an' wo' [163]

Uncle John, he makes me tired [73]
Underneath the autumn sky [256]

Villain shows his indiscretion [42]

Want to trade me, do you, mistah? Oh, well, now, I reckon not [189]
We is gathahed hyeah, my brothahs [13]
We wear the mask that grins and lies [71]
W'en daih's chillun in de house [199]
W'en de clouds is hangin' heavy in de sky [176]
W'en de colo'ed ban' comes ma'chin' down de street [178]
W'en de evenin' shadders [185]
W'en de snow's a-fallin' [188]
W'en I git up in de mo'nin' an' de clouds is big an' black [172]
W'en us fellers stomp around, makin' lots o' noise [264]
W'en you full o' worry [250]
What are the things that make life bright? [238]
What dreams we have and how they fly [166]
What if the wind do howl without [75]
What says the wind to the waving trees? [68]
What's the use o' folks a-frownin' [249]
When all is done, and my last word is said [113]
When August days are hot an' dry [130]
When de fiddle gits to singin' out a ol' Vahginny reel [138]
When first of wise old Johnson taught [129]
When I come in f'm de co'n-fiel' aftah wo'kin' ha'd all day [155]
When I was young I longed for Love [98]
When labor is light and the morning is fair [70]
When Phyllis sighs and from her eyes [175]
When storms arise [66]
When summer time has come, and all [280]
When the bees are humming in the honeysuckle vine [215]
When the corn's all cut and the bright stalks shine [16]
When to sweet music my lady is dancing [175]
When winter covering all the ground [275]
When you and I were young, the days [24]
Who dat knockin' at de do'? [184]
Who say my hea't ain't true to you? [133]
Whose little lady is you, chile [198]
Whut dat you whisperin' keepin' f'om me? [136]
Whut time 'd dat clock strike? [254]
Whut you say, dah? huh, uh! chile [153]
Why fades a dream? [77]
Why was it that the thunder voice of Fate [221]
Will I have some mo' dat pie? [203]
Win' a-blowin' gentle so de san' lay low [191]
Wintah, summah, snow er shine [178]
Wintah time hit comin' [241]
With sombre mien, the evening gray [123]
With what thou gavest me, O Master [276]
Within a London garret high [96]
Woman's sho' a cur'ous critter, an' dey ain't no doubtin' dat [170]

Yes, my ha't 's ez ha'd ez stone [62]
Yesterday I held your hand [257]
You ask why I am sad to-day [220]
You bid me hold my peace [286]
You kin talk about yer anthems [53]
You'll be wonderin' whut's de reason [131]
Your presence like a benison to me [266]
Your spoken words are roses fine and sweet [270]

LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE

ERE SLEEP COMES DOWN TO SOOTHE THE WEARY EYES

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,

Which all the day with ceaseless care have sought

The magic gold which from the seeker flies;

Ere dreams put on the gown and cap of thought,

And make the waking world a world of lies,—

Of lies most palpable, uncouth, forlorn,

That say life's full of aches and tears and sighs,—

Oh, how with more than dreams the soul is torn,

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,

How all the griefs and heart-aches we have known

Come up like pois'nous vapors that arise

From some base witch's caldron, when the crone,

To work some potent spell, her magic plies.

The past which held its share of bitter pain,

Whose ghost we prayed that Time might exorcise,

Comes up, is lived and suffered o'er again,

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,

What phantoms fill the dimly lighted room;

What ghostly shades in awe-creating guise

Are bodied forth within the teeming gloom.

What echoes faint of sad and soul-sick cries,

And pangs of vague inexplicable pain

That pay the spirit's ceaseless enterprise,

Come thronging through the chambers of the brain,

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,

Where ranges forth the spirit far and free?

Through what strange realms and unfamiliar skies

Tends her far course to lands of mystery?

To lands unspeakable—beyond surmise,

Where shapes unknowable to being spring,

Till, faint of wing, the Fancy fails and dies

Much wearied with the spirit's journeying,

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes,

How questioneth the soul that other soul,—

The inner sense which neither cheats nor lies,

But self exposes unto self, a scroll

Full writ with all life's acts unwise or wise,

In characters indelible and known;

So, trembling with the shock of sad surprise,

The soul doth view its awful self alone,

Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes.

When sleep comes down to seal the weary eyes,

The last dear sleep whose soft embrace is balm,

And whom sad sorrow teaches us to prize

For kissing all our passions into calm,

Ah, then, no more we heed the sad world's cries,

Or seek to probe th' eternal mystery,

Or fret our souls at long-withheld replies,

At glooms through which our visions cannot see,

When sleep comes down to seal the weary eyes.

THE POET AND HIS SONG

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.

My days are never days of ease;

I till my ground and prune my trees.

When ripened gold is all the plain,

I put my sickle to the grain.

I labor hard, and toil and sweat,

While others dream within the dell;

But even while my brow is wet,

I sing my song, and all is well.

Sometimes the sun, unkindly hot,

My garden makes a desert spot;

Sometimes a blight upon the tree

Takes all my fruit away from me;

And then with throes of bitter pain

Rebellious passions rise and swell;

But—life is more than fruit or grain,

And so I sing, and all is well.

RETORT

"Thou art a fool," said my head to my heart,

"Indeed, the greatest of fools thou art,

To be led astray by the trick of a tress,

By a smiling face or a ribbon smart;"

And my heart was in sore distress.

Then Phyllis came by, and her face was fair,

The light gleamed soft on her raven hair;

And her lips were blooming a rosy red.

Then my heart spoke out with a right bold air:

"Thou art worse than a fool, O head!"

ACCOUNTABILITY

Folks ain't got no right to censuah othah folks about dey habits;

Him dat giv' de squir'ls de bushtails made de bobtails fu' de rabbits.

Him dat built de gread big mountains hollered out de little valleys,

Him dat made de streets an' driveways wasn't shamed to make de alleys.

We is all constructed diff'ent, d'ain't no two of us de same;

We cain't he'p ouah likes an' dislikes, ef we'se bad we ain't to blame.

Ef we 'se good, we need n't show off, case you bet it ain't ouah doin'

We gits into su'ttain channels dat we jes' cain't he'p pu'suin'.

But we all fits into places dat no othah ones could fill,

An' we does the things we has to, big er little, good er ill.

John cain't tek de place o' Henry, Su an' Sally ain't alike;

Bass ain't nuthin' like a suckah, chub ain't nuthin' like a pike.

When you come to think about it, how it 's all planned out it 's splendid.

Nuthin 's done er evah happens, 'dout hit 's somefin' dat 's intended;

Don't keer whut you does, you has to, an' hit sholy beats de dickens,—

Viney, go put on de kittle, I got one o' mastah's chickens.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

A hush is over all the teeming lists,

And there is pause, a breath-space in the strife;

A spirit brave has passed beyond the mists

And vapors that obscure the sun of life.

And Ethiopia, with bosom torn,

Laments the passing of her noblest born.

She weeps for him a mother's burning tears—

She loved him with a mother's deepest love.

He was her champion thro' direful years,

And held her weal all other ends above.

When Bondage held her bleeding in the dust,

He raised her up and whispered, "Hope and Trust."

For her his voice, a fearless clarion, rung

That broke in warning on the ears of men;

For her the strong bow of his power he strung,

And sent his arrows to the very den

Where grim Oppression held his bloody place

And gloated o'er the mis'ries of a race.

And he was no soft-tongued apologist;

He spoke straightforward, fearlessly uncowed;

The sunlight of his truth dispelled the mist,

And set in bold relief each dark hued cloud;

To sin and crime he gave their proper hue,

And hurled at evil what was evil's due.

Through good and ill report he cleaved his way.

Right onward, with his face set toward the heights,

Nor feared to face the foeman's dread array,—

The lash of scorn, the sting of petty spites.

He dared the lightning in the lightning's track,

And answered thunder with his thunder back.

When men maligned him, and their torrent wrath

In furious imprecations o'er him broke,

He kept his counsel as he kept his path;

'T was for his race, not for himself he spoke.

He knew the import of his Master's call,

And felt himself too mighty to be small.

No miser in the good he held was he,—

His kindness followed his horizon's rim.

His heart, his talents, and his hands were free

To all who truly needed aught of him.

Where poverty and ignorance were rife,

He gave his bounty as he gave his life.

The place and cause that first aroused his might

Still proved its power until his latest day.

In Freedom's lists and for the aid of Right

Still in the foremost rank he waged the fray;

Wrong lived; his occupation was not gone.

He died in action with his armor on!

We weep for him, but we have touched his hand,

And felt the magic of his presence nigh,

The current that he sent throughout the land,

The kindling spirit of his battle-cry.

O'er all that holds us we shall triumph yet,

And place our banner where his hopes were set!

Oh, Douglass, thou hast passed beyond the shore,

But still thy voice is ringing o'er the gale!

Thou 'st taught thy race how high her hopes may soar,

And bade her seek the heights, nor faint, nor fail.

She will not fail, she heeds thy stirring cry,

She knows thy guardian spirit will be nigh,

And, rising from beneath the chast'ning rod,

She stretches out her bleeding hands to God!

LIFE

A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,

A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,

A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,

And never a laugh but the moans come double;

And that is life!

A crust and a corner that love makes precious,

With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;

And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,

And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;

And that is life!

THE LESSON

My cot was down by a cypress grove,

And I sat by my window the whole night long,

And heard well up from the deep dark wood

A mocking-bird's passionate song.

And I thought of myself so sad and lone,

And my life's cold winter that knew no spring;

Of my mind so weary and sick and wild,

Of my heart too sad to sing.

But e'en as I listened the mock-bird's song,

A thought stole into my saddened heart,

And I said, "I can cheer some other soul

By a carol's simple art."

For oft from the darkness of hearts and lives

Come songs that brim with joy and light,

The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar

THE COMPLETE POEMSOFPAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

WITH THE INTRODUCTION TO"LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE"

BY

W. D. HOWELLS

DEDICATIONS

INTRODUCTION TO LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE

INDEX OF TITLES

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE

ERE SLEEP COMES DOWN TO SOOTHE THE WEARY EYES

THE POET AND HIS SONG

RETORT

ACCOUNTABILITY

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

LIFE

THE LESSON

THE COMPLETE POEMS
OF
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

WITH THE INTRODUCTION TO
"LYRICS OF LOWLY LIFE"