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Paul Laurence Dunbar!  Picture Provided By: []

Emancipation  Fling out your banners, your honors be bringing, Raise to the ether your paeans of praise. Strike every chord and let music be ringing! Celebrate freely this day of all days.

Few are the years since that notable blessing, Raised you from slaves to the powers of men. Each year has seen you my brothers progressing, Never to sink to that level again.

Perched on your shoulders sits Liberty smiling, Perched where the eyes of the nations can see. Keep from her pinions all contact defiling; Show by your deeds what you're destined to be.

Press boldly forward nor waver, nor falter. Blood has been freely poured out in your cause, Lives sacrificed upon Liberty's alter. Press to the front, it were craven to pause.

Look to the heights that are worth your attaining Keep your feet firm in the path to the goal. Toward noble deeds every effort be straining. Worthy ambition is food for the soul!

Up! Men and brothers, be noble, be earnest! Ripe is the time and success is assured; Know that your fate was the hardest and sternest When through those lash-ringing days you endured.

Never again shall the manacles gall you Never again shall the whip stroke defame! Nobles and Freemen, your destinies call you Onward to honor, to glory and fame. The rhyme scheme is abab,cdcd,efef,ghgh,ijij,klkl,mnmn. This poem by Dunbar is sketchy but it flows together and in the end it is an inspirational poem.

Biography Paul Laurence Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872 in Dayton, Ohio. Matilda and Joshua Dunbar were both slaves. Joshua was an escaped slave that served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Calvary Regiment during the Civil War. His parents had two other children before they split up in 1874. Hs mom had two other children from her previous marriage. Dunbar grew up very poor but his mom used to recite poetry to her children. By the early age of six Dunbar began to write and recite his own poetry because of his mother. Dunbar went to Dayton Central High and he was the only African American in his class. He did not let his color affect his school so he rose to great heights in school. He was a member of the debating society, editor of the school paper and president of the school's literary society. He also wrote for Dayton community newspapers. He eventually published an African-American newsletter in Dayton, the //Dayton Tattler//, with help from the Wright brothers. Dunbar married Alice Ruth Moore, a young writer, teacher and proponent of racial and gender equality who had a master's degree from Cornell University. He has written many kinds of poetry such as dialect poems, standard English poems. Dunbar took a job at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He found the work tiresome, however, and it is believed the library's dust contributed to his worsening case of tuberculosis. He worked there for only a year before quitting to write and recite full time. Dunbar also wrote essays, novels, and short stories. His writings addressed the difficulties that his race has encountered and the efforts that African Americans had done to achieve equality in America. He traveled to Colorado and visited his half-brother in Chicago before returning to his mother in Dayton in 1904. He died there on Feb. 9, 1906 at the age of 33 because of his declining health and catching tuberculosis and his drinking habits.

The Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance is a movement of the arts that took place in Harlem, New York during the Great Depression. During this period, Paul Laurence Dunbar, along with many other artists, used poetry to express himself during the hardships caused by the depression and the racial discrimination against blacks during this period. He also used his poetry to prove the capability of African Americans to the white population. Most of Dunbar’s works are written in “plantation-dialect” form, the manner and slang in which early African Americans spoke. His work has several different tones which he uses to express his feelings about life during this critical time period. Many of Dunbar’s poems express the anguish of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance. One example is the poem “We Wear the Mask”, in which he conveys the racial mask whites put on blacks that prevented them from living a life of equality. “The Haunted Oak” is a story about a tree in which an African American was hung because of falsely accused rape. This story reveals the cruel treatment whites gave African Americans during this era. Since many of Dunbar’s readers were white, he may have used these poems to publicize the reality of discrimination in which many whites were not aware of. Other Dunbar poems, such as “A Golden Day” and “Morning”, speak of joyful things such as love. Most whites did not see African Americans as individuals. These poems proved that African Americans were equal to whites by showing that they are human too, and they love just as whites do. Dunbar’s other poems were sparks of hope to African Americans that times would get better. In the poem “He Had His Dream”, Dunbar tells a story of a Negro who worked hard his whole life and always kept hope that greater things were soon to come. In one part of this poem he states that the man “saw through every cloud a gleam”. This gave hope to many African Americans that soon their hardships would be over. 

References http://www.jcu.edu/harlem/index.htm

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/dunbar.html

http://www.dunbarsite.org/gallery/Emancipation.asp

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