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To A Violet Found On All Saints' Day

By Paul Laurence Dunbar

Topics: classic

Belated wanderer of the ways of spring,     Lost in the chill of grim November rain,     Would I could read the message that you bring     And find in it the antidote for pain.     Does some sad spirit out beyond the day,     Far looking to the hours forever dead,     Send you a tender offering to lay     Upon the grave of us, the living dead?     Or does some brighter spirit, unforlorn,     Send you, my little sister of the wood,     To say to some one on a cloudful morn,     "Life lives through death, my brother, all is good?"     With meditative hearts the others go     The memory of their dead to dress anew.     But, sister mine, bide here that I may know,     Life grows, through death, as beautiful as you.

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Author:Paul Laurence Dunbar

"Belated wanderer of the ways of spring,..." 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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