Poetry Friday 26-0410
#NPM 26
Happy National Poetry Month!
I am celebrating Poetry Month by pairing quotes about poetry (Poetry is…) with images. I share one each day without commentary. Below are the first ten. But first I must share about a poet I recently learned about.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
1872-1906
Paul Dunbar is a little known poet. He was born to parents who had been enslaved prior to the Civil War, and as a child, he began writing stories and verse, publishing his first poems at the age of 16. Though his life was cut short by tuberculous at a young age, Dunbar became one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation.
Dunbar not only published a dozen books of poetry, but in addition, four books of short stories, and four novels. Dunbar also wrote the lyrics for In Dahomey, the first musical written and performed entirely by African Americans, produced on Broadway in 1903. I found it interesting that Dunbar wrote in the “Negro dialect” associated with the antebellum South, in the Midwestern dialect of James Whitcomb Riley, and in conventional English.
His poem “Sympathy” is a powerful, moving poem, an unforgettable metaphor. In it is a famous line often thought to have been written by Maya Angelou because she used the line as the title of her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Sympathy
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!
(In public domain)
The Gutenberg Project has digitized Dunbar’s writings. Read or download digital copies HERE
POETRY IS . . .
April 1
April 2
April 3
April 4
April 5
April 6
April 7
Below is one of my favorite quotes and photos.
My husband is reading the headstone with all the personal data.
The footstone, a much smaller stone, is to the right of the tree.
Notice that the tree has grown out of the grave.
This grave is from the early 1800s. We saw it as we were hunting
for graves of our ancestors from the 17th and 18th centuries.
April 8
April 9
April 10
This week’s Poetry Friday roundup
is at Jone Rush MacCull.
Thank you for hosting, Jone!
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I’m so glad you visited today, and I do enjoy hearing from you! Please share below.
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This is really fantastic, Alice–your background choices for each quote are excellent! Now then, let’s see what a few more women have to say! I like this one from Marianne Moore (quite famous, you probably already have it queued up), but it’s an awkward one from a poem itself: “poetry,
nor till the autocrats among us can be
“literalists of
the imagination”—above
insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, *imaginary gardens with real toads in them,* shall we have
it.”
I love it. That is one of my quotes… it will post later in the month.
Intriguing poetry project Alice, I enjoyed reading your mix of quotes and images! And thanks for sharing Dunbar’s poem, whom I’m familiar with too.
Thanks for stopping by, Michelle. Have a great week of poetry!
Alice, thank you for introducing us to Paul Dunbar. I have heard of him, but I didn’t realize he was so young when he died, and that he was so prolific too. Your NPM project is interesting. I enjoyed each quote and photo. The quote with the photo of your husband reading the gravestone is so poignant.
Thank you, Denise. You should read Dunbar’s “Invitation to Love.” The “breaking bread with the dead” quote is one of my favorites… as is the photo I paired it with.
Wow! I love your poetry project. Thank you for sharing such interesting quotes and the Dunbar poem. I just wrote on Tabatha’s blog about how I am unschooled in poetry…but dang, girl! I learn a lot from Poetry Friday. This is a really good post to set a girl to thinking about what poetry actually is. And, that photo from the cemetery … that’s a winner!
Thank you, Linda. I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I’ve learn so much by being part of this group; I’m glad you found us. Thanks for noticing that cemetery photo and quote. I think it is my best pairing and I love Seamus Heaney’s quote. He’s a poet you should read about.
Thanks for spotlighting Dunbar this week. I hadn’t read “Sympathy” before and it’s powerful and heart wrenching. Didn’t know Angelou had referenced it in her book. Love your NPM Project with poetry quotes and images (will add the info to my roundup). Thanks.
Thank you, Jama. “Sympathy” is one of those poems that grips my heart every time I read it. There is such beauty in Dunbar’s writing and yet so much pain and pathos. It has application to so many issues in life.
Great post! Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote beautifully. I am such a fan of his “Invitation to Love.” Your “Poetry is…” quote-images make me think of the “Ars Poetica” that folks were writing in the last couple weeks. They go together nicely.
Thank you, Tabatha. Yes! “Invitation to Love” is wonderful.
I love this project! I knew of Paul Dunbar. Amazing poet.
Thank you. It was interesting searching for quotes about poetry that actually begin with the words “Poetry is…”
Thank you, Jone. Yes, Paul Dunbar was an amazing poet.
I love Paul Laurence Dunbar. He’s so good. And what a rich array of quotations you’ve gathered!
You have to wonder what other works Paul Laurence Dunbar would have written if his life hadn’t been cut short.
Interesting to read about Paul Laurence Dunbar. I read a little about him in Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green.
His writings are available in digital form through project Gutenberg. I’ve shared a link in this post. I think you’d like them.