Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Born to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar began writing stories and verse when he was a child. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper, and served as president of his high school’s literary society.
Much of Dunbar’s more popular work in his lifetime was written in the “Negro dialect” associated with the antebellum South. Dunbar also wrote in conventional English in other poetry and novels and is considered the first important African American sonnet writer.
A LOVE LETTER
Paul Laurence Dunbar
OH, I des received a letter f’om de sweetest little gal;
Oh, my; oh, my.
She’s my lovely little sweetheart an’ her name is Sal:
Oh, my; oh, my.
She writes me dat she loves me an’ she loves me true,
She wonders ef I’ll tell huh dat I loves huh, too;
An’ my heaht’s so full o’ music dat I do’ know what to do;
Oh, my; oh, my.
I got a man to read it an’ he read it fine;
Oh, my; oh, my.
Dey ain’ no use denying dat her love is mine;
Oh, my; oh, my.
But hyeah’s de t’ing dat’s puttin’ me in such a awful plight,
I t’ink of huh at mornin’ an’ I dream of huh at night;
But how’s I gwine to cou’t huh w’en I do’ know how to write?
Oh, my; oh, my.
My heaht is bubblin’ ovah wid de t’ings I want to say;
Oh, my; oh, my.
An’ dey’s lots of folks to copy what I tell ’em fu’ de pay;
Oh, my; oh, my.
But dey’s t’ings dat I’s a-t’inkin’ dat is only fu’ huh ears,
An’ I couldn’t lu’n to write ’em ef I took a dozen years;
So to go down daih an’ tell huh is de only way, it ‘pears;
Oh, my; oh, my.
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THE CORN-STALK FIDDLE
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Was he not kind to you, this dead old Year?
Did he not give enough of earthly store?
Enough of laughter and good cheer?
It is not well to hate him for the pain
He brought you, and the sorrows manifold.
To pardon him these hurts still I am fain,
For in the panting period of his reign,
He brought me new wounds,
But he healed the old.
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Paul Laurence Dunbar