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PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: We lay red roses on his grave
Last Line: With stones, then drive away
Subject(s): Dunbar, Paul Laurence (1872-1906)



We lay red roses on his grave,
speak sorrowfully of him
as if he were but newly dead.
And so it seems to us
this raw spring day, though years
before we two were born he was
a young poet dead.
Poet of our youth is cri du coeur our own,
his verses "in a broken tongue" beguiling as an elder
brother's antic lore.
Their sad blackface lilt and croon
survive him like
the happy look (subliminal
of victim, dying man)
a summer's tintypes hold.
The roses flutter in the wind;
we weight their stems
with stones, then drive away.








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