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    Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow
    Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow
    Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow
    Ebook116 pages43 minutes

    Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow

    By Paul Laurence Dunbar and Mint Editions

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    About this ebook

    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. This edition of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

    Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

    With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMint Editions
    Release dateMay 11, 2021
    ISBN9781513295589
    Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow
    Author

    Paul Laurence Dunbar

    Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was an African American poet, novelist, and playwright. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Dunbar was the son of parents who were emancipated from slavery in Kentucky during the American Civil War. He began writing stories and poems as a young boy, eventually publishing some in a local newspaper at the age of sixteen. In 1890, Dunbar worked as a writer and editor for The Tattler, Dayton’s first weekly newspaper for African Americans, which was a joint project undertaken with the help of Dunbar’s friends Wilbur and Orville Wright. The following year, after completing school, he struggled to make ends meet with a job as an elevator operator and envisioned for himself a career as a professional writer. In 1893, he published Oak and Ivy, a debut collection of poetry blending traditional verse and poems written in dialect. In 1896, a positive review of his collection Majors and Minors from noted critic William Dean Howells established Dunbar’s reputation as a rising star in American literature. Over the next decade, Dunbar wrote ten more books of poetry, four collections of short stories, four novels, a musical, and a play. In his brief career, Dunbar became a respected advocate for civil rights, participating in meetings and helping to found the American Negro Academy. His lyrics for In Dahomey (1903) formed the centerpiece to the first musical written and performed by African Americans on Broadway, and many of his essays and poems appeared in the nation’s leading publications, including Harper’s Weekly and the Saturday Evening Post. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1900, however, Dunbar’s health steadily declined in his final years, leading to his death at the age of thirty-three while at the height of his career.

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      Book preview

      Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow - Paul Laurence Dunbar

      A BOY’S SUMMER SONG

      ’Tis fine to play

      In the fragrant hay,

      And romp on the golden load;

      To ride old Jack

      To the barn and back,

      Or tramp by a shady road.

      To pause and drink,

      At a mossy brink;

      Ah, that is the best of joy,

      And so I say

      On a summer’s day,

      What’s so fine as being a boy? Ha, Ha!

      With line and hook

      By a babbling brook,

      The fisherman’s sport we ply;

      And list the song

      Of the feathered throng

      That flit in the branches nigh.

      At last we strip

      For a quiet dip;

      Ah, that is the best of joy.

      For this I say

      On a summer’s day,

      What’s so fine as being a boy? Ha, Ha!

      THE SAND-MAN

      I know a man

      With face of tan,

      But who is ever kind;

      Whom girls and boys

      Leave games and toys

      Each eventide to find.

      When day grows dim,

      They watch for him,

      He comes to place his claim;

      He wears the crown

      Of Dreaming-town;

      The sand-man is his name.

      When sparkling eyes

      Droop sleepywise

      And busy lips grow dumb;

      When little heads

      Nod toward the beds,

      We know the sand-man’s come.

      JOHNNY SPEAKS

      The sand-man he’s a jolly old fellow,

      His face is kind and his voice is mellow,

      But he makes your eyelids as heavy as lead,

      And then you got to go off to bed;

      I don’t think I like the sand-man.

      But I’ve been playing this livelong day;

      It does make a fellow so tired to play!

      Oh, my, I’m a-yawning right here before ma,

      I’m the sleepiest fellow that ever you saw.

      I think I do like the sand-man.

      WINTER SONG

      Oh, who would be sad tho’ the sky be a-graying,

      And meadow and woodlands are empty and bare;

      For softly and merrily now there come playing,

      The little white birds thro’ the winter-kissed air.

      The squirrel’s enjoying the rest of the thrifty,

      He munches his store in the old hollow tree;

      Tho’ cold is the blast and the snow-flakes are drifty

      He fears the white flock not a whit more than we.

      Chorus:

      Then heigho for the flying snow!

      Over the whitened roads we go,

      With pulses that tingle,

      And sleigh-bells a-jingle

      For winter’s white birds here’s a cheery heigho!

      A CHRISTMAS FOLKSONG

      De win’ is blowin’ wahmah,

      An hit’s blowin’ f’om de bay;

      Dey’s a so’t o’ mist a-risin’

      All erlong de meddah way;

      Dey ain’t a hint o’ frostin’

      On de groun’ ner in de sky,

      An’ dey ain’t no use in hopin’

      Dat de snow’ll ’mence to fly.

      It’s goin’ to be a green Christmas,

      An’ sad de day fu’ me.

      I wish dis was de las’ one

      Dat evah I should see.

      Dey’s dancin’ in de cabin,

      Dey’s spahkin’ by de tree;

      But dancin’ times an’ spahkin’

      Are all done pas’ fur me.

      Dey’s feastin’ in de big house,

      Wid all de windahs wide—

      Is dat de way fu’ people

      To meet de Christmas-tide?

      It’s goin’ to be a green Christmas,

      No mattah what you say.

      Dey’s us dat will remembah

      An’ grieve de comin’ day.

      Dey’s des a bref o’ dampness

      A-clingin’ to my cheek;

      De aih’s been dahk an’ heavy

      An’ threatenin’ fu’ a week,

      But not wid signs o’ wintah,

      Dough wintah’d seem so deah—

      De wintah’s out o’ season,

      An’ Christmas eve is heah.

      It’s goin’ to be a green Christmas,

      An’ oh, how sad de day!

      Go ax de hongry chu’chya’d,

      An’ see what hit will say.

      Dey’s Allen on de hillside,

      An’ Marfy in de plain;

      Fu’ Christmas was like springtime,

      An’

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