Life's Tragedy
Paul Laurence Dunbar
It may be misery not to sing at all,
And to go silent through the
brimming day;
It may be misery never to be loved,
But deeper griefs than
these beset the way.
To sing the perfect song,
And by a half-tone
lost the key,
There the potent sorrow, there the grief,
The pale, sad
staring of Life's Tragedy.
To have come near to the perfect love,
Not
the hot passion of untempered youth,
But that which lies aside its vanity,
And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.
This, this indeed is to
be accursed,
For if we mortals love, or if we sing,
We count our joys
not by what we have,
But by what kept us from that perfect thing.
Paul Dunbar was an African-American poet whose parents managed to escape slavery. He started writing poetry at a very young age and often wrote poetry together with his wife Alice. His poetry focuses on rhetorical structure.
This poem demonstrates Dunbar's rhetorical format and allows the reader to interpret in numerous ways. I think he is trying to say that we are so focused on everything being perfect as it is in our minds, however, Dunbar continues to add that we take for granted what we are given because we are greedy for more.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
It may be misery not to sing at all,
And to go silent through the
brimming day;
It may be misery never to be loved,
But deeper griefs than
these beset the way.
To sing the perfect song,
And by a half-tone
lost the key,
There the potent sorrow, there the grief,
The pale, sad
staring of Life's Tragedy.
To have come near to the perfect love,
Not
the hot passion of untempered youth,
But that which lies aside its vanity,
And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.
This, this indeed is to
be accursed,
For if we mortals love, or if we sing,
We count our joys
not by what we have,
But by what kept us from that perfect thing.
Paul Dunbar was an African-American poet whose parents managed to escape slavery. He started writing poetry at a very young age and often wrote poetry together with his wife Alice. His poetry focuses on rhetorical structure.
This poem demonstrates Dunbar's rhetorical format and allows the reader to interpret in numerous ways. I think he is trying to say that we are so focused on everything being perfect as it is in our minds, however, Dunbar continues to add that we take for granted what we are given because we are greedy for more.