Lyrics Of Sunshine And Shadow Poems

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Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905) is a collection of poems by African American author Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published while Dunbar was suffering from tuberculosis, alcoholism, and depression, Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow builds on his reputation as an artist with a powerful vision of faith and perseverance who sought to capture and examine the diversity of the African American experience. In “The Place Where the Rainbow Ends,” Dunbar, perhaps reflecting on his proximity to death, provides a simple song with a cautionary, utopian vision of hope and happiness: “Oh, many have sought it, / And all would have bought it, / With the blood we so recklessly spend; / But none has uncovered, / The gold, nor discovered / The spot at the rainbow’s end.” Meditative and bittersweet, Dunbar rejects wealth and power as a means of achieving fulfillment, looking instead to establish an inner peace for himself that he might “find without motion, / The place where the rainbow ends,” a place “[w]here care shall be quiet, / And love shall run riot, / And [he] shall find wealth in [his] friends.” Whether a vision of heaven or of the possibility of peace on earth, this poem finds echoes across Dunbar’s penultimate volume. Nearing death at such a young age, he prepares himself to lose the life he had fought so hard to achieve, a life devoted to reaching the hearts and minds of others. As we all must, he ends on a question, opening himself to the unknown without losing hope for the possibility of peace and reunion to come: “Where shall we meet, who knows, who knows?” In the reader, his song carries on. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Excerpt from Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 - February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar began to write stories and verse when still a child; he was president of his high school's literary society. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper. Much of Dunbar's more popular work in his lifetime was written in the Negro dialect associated with the antebellum South, though he also used the Midwestern regional dialect of James Whitcomb Riley. Dunbar's work was praised by William Dean Howells, a leading editor associated with the Harper's Weekly, and Dunbar was one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. He wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy In Dahomey (1903), the first all-African-American musical produced on Broadway in New York. The musical later toured in the United States and the United Kingdom. Dunbar also wrote in conventional English in other poetry and novels. Since the late 20th century, scholars have become more interested in these other works. Suffering from tuberculosis, which then had no cure, Dunbar died in Dayton at the age of 33. Early life: Paul Laurence Dunbar was born at 311 Howard Street in Dayton, Ohio, on June 27, 1872, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War. After being emancipated, his mother Matilda had moved to Dayton with other family members, including her two sons Robert and William from her first marriage. Dunbar's father Joshua had escaped from slavery in Kentucky before the war ended. He traveled to Massachusetts and volunteered for the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first two black units to serve in the war. The senior Dunbar also served in the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment. Paul Dunbar was born six months after Joshua and Matilda married on Christmas Eve, 1871. The marriage of Dunbar's parents was troubled and Dunbar's mother left Joshua soon after having their second child, a daughter.Joshua died on August 16, 1885; Paul was then 12 years old. Dunbar wrote his first poem at the age of six and gave his first public recital at the age of nine. His mother assisted him in his schooling, having learned to read expressly for that purpose. She often read the Bible with him, and thought he might become a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was the first independent black denomination in America, founded in Philadelphia in the early 19th century. Dunbar was the only African-American student during his years at Central High School in Dayton; Orville Wright was a classmate and friend. Well-accepted, he was elected as president of the school's literary society, and became the editor of the school newspaper and a member of the debate club....................

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