Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1905

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,

And the river flows like a stream of glass;

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—

I know what the caged bird feels!

—

I know why the caged bird beats his wing

Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;

For he must fly back to his perch and cling

When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;

And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars

And they pulse again with a keener sting—

I know why he beats his wing!

—

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—

When he beats his bars and he would be free;

It is not a carol of joy or glee,

But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,

But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—

I know why the caged bird sings!

- The poem, Sympathy, by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published in 1899.

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Paul Laurence Dunbar worked as an elevator operator after graduating from high school in 1891. But what he really wanted to do was write poetry. And so, as he’d meet people riding the building elevator, Paul would recite his latest verses to them. People liked what they heard.

Inspired and confident, the young poet wanted to publish a book of his work. He pitched himself to a local publisher, who asked if Paul understood the difficulties of earning a living from poetry, even for the already well-known poets. Paul may have. He had started a newspaper as a high school student, writing every story in the paper. The experience, though short-lived, was rewarding. And gave him some understanding of the challenges a writer faces. But it certainly didn't deter him from his dreams. There are differing stories about whether the publisher or friends loaned Paul the money. It was a lot, about six months of his salary as an elevator operator. But his poetry left people impressed enough that they supported his work.

Thus began a writing career that started as a youthful joy when Paul was just seven. As he grew older, his writing became rooted in two different upbringings amidst two different worlds that few in America of the time lived. In one world, Paul was born to a father, Joshua, who had escaped slavery in Kentucky and fought with the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War. And a mother, Matilda, who had been enslaved until emancipation in Virginia. Home time consisted of stories and hymns of Southern black life, and the rich cadences of speech known as black dialect.

In the other world, Paul attended Dayton Central High School in Ohio, where he was the only black student in his class. High school education was generally rare then, and typically, only for children from educated households. Paul's father had passed away by this point, but his mother, who struggled financially, was adamant that her son receive a degree, which he did amongst other highly educated students. In school, Paul was popular and friends with many, including the Wright brothers, who would make the world’s first controlled, sustained, powered flight in an aircraft. He was also already considered a talented writer and was chosen as class poet. For graduation, Paul wrote,

"Why stirs with sad alarm the heart,

For all who meet must someday part."

This dual experience shaped Paul's voice as a writer. He carried both worlds with him: writing in the style of the northern white community and the southern black one. For the latter, he captured the people's beauty, sorrow, humor, and humanity; he brought black Americans' inner lives, wit, struggle, and music, particularly those whose stories had long been excluded from literature, into poetic form with remarkable tenderness and craft. At a time when many readers viewed dialect writing as comic or lowbrow, Paul transformed it into something soulful and dignified, creating fully human portraits of people too often reduced to stereotypes.