Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow

Paul Laurence Dunbar

• Publisher: Mint Editions
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781513295589
• eBook ISBN: 9781513295589
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

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.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• A Boy’s Summer Song
• The Sand-Man
• Johnny Speaks
• Winter Song
• A Christmas Folksong
• The Forest Greeting
• The Lily of the Valley
• Encouraged
• To J.Q.
• Diplomacy
• Scamp
• Wadin’ in De Crick
• A Corn Song
• The Plantation Child’s Lullaby
• Twilight
• Curiosity
• Opportunity
• Puttin’ the Baby Away
• The Fisher Child’s Lullaby
• Faith
• The Farm Child’s Lullaby
• The Place Where the Rainbow Ends
• Hope
• Appreciation
• The Barrier
• Day
• To Dan
• What’s the Use
• A Lazy Day
• Advice
• Limitations
• A Golden Day
• The Unlucky Apple
• The Discovery
• Morning
• The Awakening
• Love’s Draft
• A Musical
• Twell De Night is Pas’
• Blue
• Dreamin’ Town
• At Night
• Kidnaped
• Compensation
• Winter’s Approach
• Anchored
• The Veteran
• Yesterday and Tomorrow
• The Change
• The Chase
• Suppose
• The Death of the First Born
• Bein’ Back Home
• The Old Cabin
• Despair
• Circumstances Alter Cases
• Till the Wind Gets Right
• A Summer Night
• At Sunset Time
• Night
• At Loafing-Holt
• When a Feller’s Itching to be Spanked
• The River of Ruin
• To Her
• A Love Letter
• After Many Days
• Liza May
• The Masters
• Trouble in De Kitchen
• The Quilting
• Parted
• Forever
• Christmas
• Roses and Pearls
• Rain-Songs
• A Lost Dream
• A Song
• A Song
• A Note About the Author
• A Note from the Publisher