Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Outline

Thesis: The major accomplishments of Paul Laurence Dunbar's life during 1872 to

1938 label him as being an American poet, short story writer, and novelist.

I. Introduction II. American poet

A. Literary English

B. Dialect poet

1. "Oak and Ivy"

2. "Majors and Minors"

3. "Lyrics of Lowly Life"

4. "Lyrics of the Hearthside"

5. "Sympathy" III. Short story writer

A. Folks from Dixie (1898)

B. The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories (1900)

C. The Heart of Happy Hollow (1904) IV. Novelist

A. The Uncalled (1898)

B. The Love of Landry (1900)

C. The Fanatics (1901)

D. The Sport of the Gods (1902) V. Conclusion

Paul Laurence Dunbar attended grade schools and Central High School in

Dayton, Ohio. He was editor of the High School Times and president of

Philomathean Literary Society in his senior year. Despite Dunbar's growing

reputation in the then small town of Dayton, writing jobs were closed to black

applicants and the money to further his education was scarce. In 1891, Dunbar

graduated from Central High School and was unable to find a decent job.

Desperate for employment, he settled for a job as an elevator operator in the

Callahan Building in Dayton.

The major accomplishments of Paul Laurence Dunbar's life during 1872 to

1938 labeled him as an American poet. Dunbar had two poetic identities. He was

first a Victorian poet writing in a comparatively formal style of literary

English. Dunbar's other identity was that of the dialect poet, writing lighter,

usually humorous or sentimental work not merely in the Negro dialect but in

other varieties as well: Irish, once in German, but very frequently in the

hoosier dialect of Indiana. There is good reason to assert, however, that the

sources of Dunbar's dialect verse were in the real language of the people. The

basic charge of this criticism can be stated in the words of a recent critic,

Jean Wagner. Dunbar's dialect is, he says, "at best a secondhand instrument,

irredeemably blemished by the degrading things imposed upon it by the enemies of

the Black people" (Revell, Paul Laurence Dunbar, pg. 84). One of the most

popular of Dunbar's dialect poems was and is "When Malindy Sings" which builds

upon the natural ability of the race in song and is acknowledged to be Dunbar's

tribute to his mother's spontaneous outbursts of singing as she worked in the

kitchen. The message of the poem is of praise for simplicity of spirit and the

love of God.

Another of Dunbar's superb poems is entitled "Sympathy", written in

1895:

I know what the caged bird feels,

alas!

When the sun is bright on the

upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through