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Douglass

By Paul Laurence Dunbar

Topics: classic

Ah, Douglass, we have fall'n on evil days,     Such days as thou, not even thou didst know,     When thee, the eyes of that harsh long ago     Saw, salient, at the cross of devious ways,     And all the country heard thee with amaze.     Not ended then, the passionate ebb and flow,     The awful tide that battled to and fro;     We ride amid a tempest of dispraise.     Now, when the waves of swift dissension swarm,     And Honor, the strong pilot, lieth stark,     Oh, for thy voice high-sounding o'er the storm,     For thy strong arm to guide the shivering bark,     The blast-defying power of thy form,     To give us comfort through the lonely dark.

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"Ah, Douglass, we have fall'n on evil days,..."

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Author:Paul Laurence Dunbar

"Ah, Douglass, we have fall'n on evil days,..." by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Paul Laurence Dunbar

About Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) was an American poet and novelist who was one of the first African-American writers to gain national prominence. His poems in dialect—including "When Malindy Sings"—and standard English explore Black life with humor, pathos, and dignity.

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