Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Dunbar, Paul Laurence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0142437824 ISBN 13: 9780142437827

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2004

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the first African-American poets to gain national recognition. The son of freed slaves from Kentucky, he was uanble to afford college and became an elevator operator. He later moved to Chicago, where he befriended Frederick Douglass and published poetry in prominent national publications and writing lyrics for a number of musical reviews.

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Table of Contents

 

PENGUINCLASSICS SELECTED POEMS

Title Page

Copyright Page

Introduction

 

FROM OAK AND IVY 1893

A Banjo Song

A Career

Columbian Ode

Life

Lullaby

Melancholia

My Sort o’ Man

Ode to Ethiopia

Sympathy

The Ol’ Tunes

The Seedling

 

FROM 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 Soothe 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 Pfrimmer

 

FROM 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 Party

 

FROM POEMS OF CABIN AND FIELD 1899

The Deserted Plantation

Little Brown Baby

Chrismus Is A-Comin’

 

FROM LYRICS OF THE HEARTHSIDE 1899

Love’s Apotheosis

The Paradox

The Right to Die

Behind the Arras

A Hymn - After Reading Lead, Kindly Light.

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 On an Old Book with Uncut Leaves

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

Protest

 

FROM WHEN MALINDY SINGS 1903

When Malindy Sings

The Colored Band

The 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 Lullaby

 

FROM 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 On Its New Slavery

The Haunted Oak

Weltschmertz

Robert Gould Shaw

A Love Song

A Negro Love Song

The Fount of Tears

At the Tavern

 

FROM LI’L’ GAL 1904

Li’l’ Gal

A Plea

Soliloquy of a Turkey

When Sam’l Sings

 

FROM 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

Christmas

 

FROM HOWDY, HONEY, HOWDY 1905

“Howdy, Honey, Howdy!”

Encouragement

Twilight

 

FROM JOGGIN’ ERLONG 1906

The Capture

 

UNCOLLECTED POEMS

Emancipation (1890)

Welcome Address To the Western Association of Writers

Comrade

Love Is a Star

The Making Up

A Toast to Dayton (1917)

Sold A C.H.S. Episode (1890)

After the Struggle (1900)

The Builder (1905) To John H. Patterson, Esq.

Lullaby (II)

 

Index of Titles

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Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0142437824
• ISBN 13: 9780142437827
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272