Paul Laurence Dunbar

About Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was an African American poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been slaves in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar started to write as a child and was president of his high school's literary society. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper. Dunbar's work often dealt with themes of poverty, racism, and hardship, as well as the celebration of black culture and heritage.

"We Wear the Mask" is one of Dunbar's most famous poems, and it explores the theme of African Americans having to hide their true feelings and emotions behind a mask in order to survive in a white-dominated society. "Sympathy" is another well-known poem, in which the speaker laments the conditions of being caged like a bird, a metaphor for the oppression of African Americans.

Dunbar's writing style was characterized by his use of dialect and standard English, as well as his incorporation of African American vernacular and oral traditions. He continues to be celebrated for his contribution to African American literature and is widely regarded as one of the greatest African American poets of all time.

Suffering from tuberculosis, Dunbar died at the age of 33.