Paul Laurence Dunbar

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Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar

by English 102
August 4, 1995

Outline

Thesis: The major accomplishments of Paul Laurence Dunbar's life during 1872 to
1938 label him as being an American poet, short story writer, and novelist.

I. Introduction II. American poet
    A. Literary English
    B. Dialect poet
        1. "Oak and Ivy"
        2. "Majors and Minors"
        3. "Lyrics of Lowly Life"
        4. "Lyrics of the Hearthside"
        5. "Sympathy" III. Short story writer
    A. Folks from Dixie (1898)
    B. The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories (1900)
    C. The Heart of Happy Hollow (1904) IV. Novelist
    A. The Uncalled (1898)
    B. The Love of Landry (1900)
    C. The Fanatics (1901)
    D. The Sport of the Gods (1902) V. Conclusion

    Paul Laurence Dunbar attended grade schools and Central High School in
Dayton, Ohio. He was editor of the High School Times and president of
Philomathean Literary Society in his senior year. Despite Dunbar's growing
reputation in the then small town of Dayton, writing jobs were closed to black
applicants and the money to further his education was scarce. In 1891, Dunbar
graduated from Central High School and was unable to find a decent job.
Desperate for employment, he settled for a job as an elevator operator in the
Callahan Building in Dayton.
    The major accomplishments of Paul Laurence Dunbar's life during 1872 to
1938 labeled him as an American poet. Dunbar had two poetic identities. He was
first a Victorian poet writing in a comparatively formal style of literary
English. Dunbar's other identity was that of the dialect poet, writing lighter,
usually humorous or sentimental work not merely in the Negro dialect but in
other varieties as well: Irish, once in German, but very frequently in the
hoosier dialect of Indiana. There is good reason to assert, however, that the
sources of Dunbar's dialect verse were in the real language of the people. The
basic charge of this criticism can be stated in the words of a recent critic,
Jean Wagner. Dunbar's dialect is, he says, "at best a secondhand instrument,
irredeemably blemished by the degrading things imposed upon it by the enemies of
the Black people" (Revell, Paul Laurence Dunbar, pg. 84). One of the most
popular of Dunbar's dialect poems was and is "When Malindy Sings" which builds
upon the natural ability of the race in song and is acknowledged to be Dunbar's
tribute to his mother's spontaneous outbursts of singing as she worked in the
kitchen. The message of the poem is of

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