African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

James D. Corrothers, "Paul Laurence Dunbar" (1906)

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

Version as published in The Voice of the Negro, March 1906: 

There came a dark youth singing in the dawn
Of a new freedom, to a mellow lyre,
Refining, as with touch of an Apollo's fire,
The songs a lowly people sang upon
A toilsome way. The night of gloom was gone;
He stood, full-throated, cheering son and sire
To garner grain, despising rain and mire
Of yesternight. "To-day," he sang, "toil on
And up, my race, from vale toward glory's crest!"
Men marvelled at the singer, strong and sweet.
He left the forest, drenched with storms of night,
And faced the morning, beautiful with light,
To die while shadows still fell toward the west,
And leave his laurels at a people's feet.

* * * * 

Revised version: 

He came, a youth, singing in the dawn
  Of a new freedom, glowing o'er his lyre,
  Refining, as with great Apollo's fire,
  His people's gift of song. And thereupon,
This Negro singer, come to Helicon
  Constrained the masters, listening to admire,
  And roused a race to wonder and aspire,
  Gazing which way their honest voice was gone,
With ebon face uplit of glory's crest.
  Men marveled at the singer, strong and sweet,
  Who brought the cabin's mirth, the tuneful night,
But faced the morning, beautiful with light,
  To die while shadows yet fell toward the west,
  And leave his laurels at his people's feet.

Dunbar, no poet wears your laurels now;
  None rises, singing, from your race like you.
  Dark melodist, immortal, though the dew
  Fell early on the bays upon your brow,
And tinged with pathos every halcyon vow
  And brave endeavor. Silence o'er you threw
  Flowerets of love. Or, if an envious few
  Of your own people brought no garlands, how
Could Malice smite him whom the gods had crowned?
  If, like the meadow-lark, your flight was low
  Your flooded lyrics half the hilltops drowned;
A wide world heard you, and it loved you so
  It stilled its heart to list the strains you sang,
  And o'er your happy songs its plaudits rang.


First published in Voice of the Negro, March 1906
 

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