"Dawn" Paul Laurence Dunbar AN angel, robed in spotless white, Bent down and kissed the sleeping Night. Night woke to blush; the sprite was gone. Men saw the blush and called it Dawn. | An African-American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar carried classic and traditional verse into the 19th and early 20th centuries, but was also a beloved American novelist and playwright. On July 27, 1872 in Dayton, Ohio, Dunbar was born to parents, Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar who had been freed from their enslavement in Kentucky before the American civil war, and even after their early separation, their stories of plantation life later came to have a significant impact on Dunbar’s writing. Even as a child Dunbar showed a passion for writing and an ardency for learning, writing stories and verse as well as becoming the president of his high school’s literary society and the editor of a black newspaper, The Dayton Tattler run by him and a friend named Orville Wright. The proud Dunbar had his first poems published in a Dayton Newspaper at the age of fourteen. A lack of funding resulted in Dunbar inability to attend College, in spite of his academic ardor, this lead to taking a job as a elevator operator. An admiring former teacher invited him to read his poems to a congregation of the Western Association of Writers, the audience of authors was so affected by Dunbar’s work that the adored Midwest writer, James Whitcomb Riley wrote him a letter of encouragement. In 1892, Taking heavy inspiration from his dark heritage, Dunbar published many works in the Negro dialect, affiliated with the Antebellum South, these proved to be most popular of his texts, despite his writing in several distinctly different, including German and Midwestern regional dialect popularized by James Whitcomb Riley. The Harper’s Weekly, leading editor William Dean Howells, was known to praise Dunbar and his works and it is widely acknowledged that Dunbar was one of the first African-American poets to earn an international reputation. During his lifetime, Dunbar wrote lyrics for the musical comedy(produced on broadway), In Dahomey(1903), the first all African-American musical produced on Broadway, and continued to be successful enough to tour both the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition, to dialectic poetry and stage plays Dunbar wrote conventional English poetry and novels, these works have increased in scholarly interest since the late 20th century. Strangely, it appeared to Dunbar in 1898 that his love for literature was coming back to haunt him, in the dust of libraries that was contaminating his lungs and intensifying his tuberculosis. This lead to his renewed interest in his own personal writing and public readings. After separating from his wife in 1902, Dunbar’s tuberculosis slowly consumed his health and following a nervous breakdown and a damaging case of pneumonia, bouts of ill health and heavy drinking in hope of calming his cough dominated Dunbar’s life and he became dedicated to his writing, publishing the volumes: Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903), Howdy, Howdy, Howdy (1905), and Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905). These publication cemented his position as America’s premier black author and when he died, as a result of his deteriorating condition, at still young age of 33 on the ninth of February in 1906 he was an acclaimed and successful poet, and passed away among admirers in his own hometown of Dayton. |
The end of the 19th century saw the realization of great writers in the American west, Mark Twain, James Whitcomb Riley, and Willa Cather being preeminent among them, but one of the more extraordinary in character and in life, not to mention in his writing was the African-American Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar conquered sickness and poverty to become a prominent and well-respected published writer, whose drive and natural talent lead to the friendship and support of noted figures such as Frederick Douglass, the African American social reformer, writer and abolitionist who called him “the most promising young colored man in America.” which gave him both the resources and opportunities to become the beloved American poet he rose to become. During his relatively short life, Dunbar was a highly prolific writer, who published a great deal including everything from his first self published collection Oak and Ivy(1893), to Lyrics of Lowly Life(1896), a short story collection, Folks from Dixie, a novel entitled The Uncalled, and two more collections of poems, Lyrics of the Hearthside and Poems of Cabin and Field (1899). Dunbar’s compositions included a myriad of varied dialect and several vastly different literary genres and formats from comedic musicals to fantastical poetry such as “Dawn”. Written in increasing acknowledged and acclaimed dialect of the Midwest, with subtle and modest beauty, this poem is a darling example of the classical victorian beauty of poetry.
It is with careful precision that simplicity can become elegance. Here, minimalism and tradition add timeless appeal and classic beauty to a elementary language. Paul Laurence Dunbar has adeptly used immortal poetic verse forms to construct “Dawn” a masterful work that has stability and strength despite the feminine delicacy of it’s theme. Quatrains, or stanzas composed of four poetic lines, are the most basic and common of all poetic verse forms, they have been used for centuries to great effect they developed great popularity however during the Victorian era, when their heritage and clean structure were highly praised. Dunbar uses the epochal iambic tetrameter to complete his quatrain with graceful rhythm, iambic tetrameter consists of lines comprised of four iambic feet(unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable), and has been in wide use since the renowned Greek poets of old, and developed popularity among all languages and cultures from Hebrew to Germanic. The rhyme scheme of “Dawn” is perhaps the most facile of all it’s clear literary features, composed in the elementary pattern of AA BB which though it is often seen as childlike for it’s transparency and familiar use in children’s and nonsense poetry is a delightful choice which accents the poem’s quaint eloquence, the rhyming words though sounding identical are not alike in appearance this emphasis both the contrast in their meaning and their aesthetic, “white” is starkly distinctive from “Night” as is “gone” from “Dawn”. This contradictory utilization of twin endings facilitates a striking aura of grandeur against the modest systems Dunbar has chosen. “Dawn” is an excellent example of the appealing artistry and finesse that can be given to the most cliché of the poetic schematics, with a little meticulous word choice and placement.
The theme of “Dawn” is doubtless the most compelling feature in a poem which conveys naive beauty, seemingly without the slightest tribulation. It is dictated in a story-like fashion analogous to a fable or myth detailing explanations for natural phenomena before the time of science these charming works often came from polytheistic cultures and heavily featured their gods, the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Chinese and Mayans all had comparable tales documenting events congruent to that of “Dawn”. Yet, Dunbar has boldly combined this ancient custom into an anecdote which incorporates the Angel, a figure which is most often associated with Christianity, an emblem of purity, innocence, light and all that is done with benevolent intent, this messenger of god, seems the ideal bringer of a much awaited “Dawn”. Using astute imagery which is both vivid and gentile Dunbar sets the scene with a visage of a character of the most positive connotations possible: “An angel, robed in spotless white,” represents all that is just and right in the world, describing a heavenly body in unsullied color of the immaculate, a combinations of symbols for a common theme. He follows his subject with the action of the piece, “Bent down and kissed,” a second character, “the sleeping Night,” here is demonstrated the most benign of actions done unto a character of generally more negative connotations but who is presented in an act which is correlated with harmlessness and inculpability; sleep. Here, the dark black “Night” is given life with straightforward personification and is contrasted against the light stainless ivory of being who it now seems may represent the sun, or a star. The third line initiates the second character’s action in the continued and connected personification of the “Night [who] woke to blush;” and “the sprite was gone.” An image of purest allure and fragility as fleeting and rare as a falling star, it’s kind and intimate actions works to falter and embarrass our prudent night. The final line summarizes the poem with “Men saw the blush and called it Dawn.” presenting humanity’s mundane role in the whole affair, merely labeling an action far out reaching them in magnitude and worldly significance it also introduces a terminating character and the namesake of the poem, in which its birth is told. An ageless combination of the enduring magic of the fantastical and contemporary charm of modern meaning, “Dawn” is candid and articulate work of austere pulchritude.
“Dawn” is a extraordinarily hopeful work to come from such a darkened soul, yet the Paul Laurence Dunbar had never been one to let the negativity of his life control his writing and he overcame his oppressed heritage and ailing lungs with commendable decorum and poise. A piece akin to an early myth, embodying all the tradition and wonder that came before science, Dunbar utilizes established and well used formats to construct a piece of individual elegance and style. “Dawn” for all the seeming banality and mundaneness of its arrangement is a work of refreshing and original theme and style, it’s purity and innocence are presented with approachable yet sagacious technique, literary devices are employed to wondrous effect. It brings its readers a subtle and raw satisfaction gratified by beauty that exists beyond the tangible world, and Paul Laurence Dunbar proves himself as the proficient and multifaceted American author we have come to acknowledge him as.