Category Archives: Lyric

BOOKS: “The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (AmazonClassics Edition)The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Paul Laurence Dunbar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available online at Project Gutenberg

As the title suggests, this is all the published poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. With a career pre-dating the Harlem Renaissance, during which lyric poetry ruled the roost, Dunbar may not be as well-known today as several of the African American poets who came later, but it’s not for being any less masterful.

The collection includes a wide variety of lyric forms from simple quatrains to intermediate length poems of several pages. The content and tones also vary, and there is often a sense of whimsy in the poems that goes beyond just being lyrical in form. Dunbar wrote both in dialect and in standard English. He was a big fan of James Whitcomb Riley’s dialectal work, as a poem in Riley’s honor attests. The dialect poems are easy enough to follow and are a pleasure to read. Dunbar was by no means limited to dialectal writing; he also wrote in Standard English cleverly, and the juxtaposition of his very “proper” poems and the dialectal ones shows a great range.

I’d highly recommend this collection for poetry readers, particularly those who enjoy lyric and dialectal poems.

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Swamp Deer [Lyric Poem]

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Everyday at an appointed hour
 the Swamp Deer takes an anti-shower.
 It hooks its antlers into the muck,
  and with a twist and shake mud is chucked
  upward, where it rains down on the beast.
 It's stinky and slimy, but it's cool, at least.

Cheetah [Lyric Poem]

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A Cheetah can beat a Porsche to a hundred.
 (Imagine the tumble if a clumsy one blundered.)
 In fact, Cheetah's are so very, very fast
   that your future is way, way back in its past.

Donkey [Lyric Poem]

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The Donkey 's known to be a stubborn beast,
 But when one won't move - maybe wheels weren't greased.
 I've seen angry humans push, pull, and tug,
 But never give a peptalk or a hug.

Pelican [Lyric Poem]

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The Pelican, when it has formed a group,
 Is said to be a squadron, pouch, or scoop.
 I find that naming scheme quite puzzling;
 Isn't its "pouch" where it keeps soup for guzzling?

“To fight aloud is very brave –” (138) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

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To fight aloud, is very brave --
   But gallanter, I know
 Who charge within the bosom
   The Calvary of Wo --

Who win, and nations do not see --
   Who fall -- and none observe --
 Whose dying eyes, no Country
   Regards with patriot love --

We trust, in plumed procession
   For such, the Angels go --
 Rank after Rank, with even feet --
   And Uniforms of snow.

“Beggar to Beggar Cried” by William Butler Yeats [w/ Audio]

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"Time to put off the world and go somewhere
 And find my health again in the sea air,"
 Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
 "And make my soul before my pate is bare;
 
"And get a comfortable wife and house
 To rid me of the devil in my shoes,"
 Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
 "And the worse devil that is between my thighs.
 
"And though I'd marry with a comely lass,
 She need not be too comely -- let it pass,"
 Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
 "But there's a devil in a looking glass.

"Nor should she be too rich, because the rich
 Are driven by wealth as beggars by the itch,"
 Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
 "And cannot have a humorous happy speech.

"And there I'll grow respected at my ease,
 And hear amid the garden's nightly peace,"
 Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck,
 "The wind-blown clamor of the barnacle-geese."

“Flood” by James Joyce [w/ Audio]

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Gold-brown upon the sated flood
 The rock-vine clusters lift and sway:
 Vast wings above the lambent waters
   brood
 Of sullen day.

A waste of waters ruthlessly
 Sways and uplifts its weedy mane,
 Where brooding day stares down
   upon the sea
 In dull disdain.

Uplift and sway, O golden vine,
 Thy clustered fruits to love's full
   flood,
 Lambent and vast and ruthless as is
   thine
 Incertitude.

Snake [Lyric Poem]

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I saw a snake had made a gnarly bed --
 On logs and stones, its length did curl and thread.
 Ah, to be comfy on bark's ragged bumps...
 I wake up when PJ's wad to a lump.

“The Bumblebee” by James Whitcomb Riley [w/ Audio]

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You better not fool with a Bumblebee!--
 Ef you don't think they can sting -- you'll see!
 They're lazy to look at, an' kind o' go
 Buzzin' an' bummin' aroun' so slow,
 An' ac' so slouchy an' all fagged out,
 Danglin' their legs as they drone about
 The hollyhawks 'at they can't climb in
 'Ithout ist a-tumble-un out ag'in!
 Wunst I watched one climb clean 'way
 In a jimson-blossom, I did, one day,--
 An' I ist grabbed it -- an' nen let go--
 An' "Ooh-ooh! Honey! I told ye so!"
 Says The Raggedy Man; an' he ist run
 An' pullt out the stinger, an' don't laugh none,
 An' says: "They has be'n folks, I guess,
 'At thought I wuz prejudust, more or less, --
 Yit I still muntain 'at a Bumblebee
 Wears out his welcome too quick fer me!"