The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-12-07
A NEGRO BARD,

The. Complete Poems. OF Paul Laurence p9hbr-
With the Introduction TO Lyrics Of Lowly
Lie By ". y. HoNeils. Published by podd'
Mead and Compnny Ne~ YORK
The poems of America most famous
poet of African blood are here collected
into one volume. which comprises the
Lyrics Of the Hearthside." Lyrics OF
Love and Laughter Lyrics OF Sunshine
and Shadow" and number or poems
never before published. The death OF
the full frultiou OF his Ideals ls a pa
thetc episode I'm American literature
Speaking on this point I'm his lntroduc-
tIon of Lyrics OF Lowly Life. William
Dean Ilowells said. "I think I should
scarcely trouble the reader with n special
appeal in behalf OF this book: II IT. had
apart from tho authors race, origin. and
condition. The world Ia too old now, and
| nnd myself too much OF its mood, TO
care for the work OF a poet because he
were slaves. because ne was. before and
after he began to write poems. all ele-
vator boy. These facts would certainly
attract me TO bin as a man. " knew
him 10 have literary ambition. but
when Il came to his literary art, must
Judge 1t irrespective OF these facts, and
enjoy or endure 1t for what 1t was in IL
seIf'' In another connection Mr., Howels
said: "IIere Is the first instance of an
American negro who has evinced dlstinc-
tion In literature"
~ Life" Mr.. Howells gave n better an
probation o; the poems than has been
offered 10 the American public since that
time, and herewith Is appended some or
the more striking things which the dean
or American literature said about Mr..
Dunbar and his poems:
Yet 1t appeared TO me then, and 1t
appears to me now. that there Is
between the races which 1t would be
a great pity ever to lose, and that
this IS best preserved and most
charmingly suggested by Mr.. Dunbar
in those pieces OF his whore he studies
tho moods and traits OF his race In
Its own accent Of our English We
call such pieces dialect pieces for
want OF some closer phrase, but they
are really not dialect 80 much as de-
lightful personal attempts and fall
ures for the written and spoken Ian
refined md delicate art so we'll shown
as In these pieces. which. as I ven
ture TO say, described the range be-
tween appetite and emotion with GER
tain lifts far beyond and above II.
which is the range OF the race. He
reveals In these n finely ironlcal per-
ceptlon OF the negro's limitations,
with a tenderness for them which l
think so very rare as TO be almost
quite new. / should say. perhaps,
tina, il was this humorous quality
which Mr.. Dunbar had added 10 our
literature, and It would be this which
would most distinguish him, now and
hereafter, 1t is something that one
feels in nearly ell the dialect pieces:
and hope that in the present col
lection he has kept all OF these In his
earlier volume, and added others TO
them. But the contents OF this book
are wholly OF his own choosing and
! do not know how much or little he
may have preferred the poems In lit
erary English. Some of these
thought very good, and even more
than very good, but not distinctively
his contribution 10 the body of Amer
lean poetry. What I mean is that
several people might have written
them: but do not know anyone else
az present who could quite have writ
ten the dialect pieces. These are
divlnations and reports of what
passes I'm the hearts and minds OF
lowlv people whose poetry had hither-
TO been lnarticulately expressed In
music. but now finds, for the first
time in our tongue, literary inter-