Poetry Supermarket

http://www.dunbarsite.org/gallery/TheDebt.asp

http://www.dunbarsite.org/gallery/Life.asp

The poet that I have explored over the past few days was Paul Lawrence Dunbar. He is a great American poet who published many famous works throughout his career. The two poems that I focused on were "The Debt" and "Life". I think that the two poems were very similar in construction and in meaning. Both were short, deep poems that dealt with life and some of the obstacles faced during it. In "The Debt", Dunbar seems to be describing the consequences of a small action that he performed in his own life, such as cheating on the woman he loved or something along those lines. His intentions seem to show how sometimes even if you think your actions only have a small consequence, it can grow into something that will effect you until you die. In "Life", Dunbar expresses how some Americans had to live and the ways their lives went. He shows like an optimist's outlook on life compared to a pessimist's outlook on life. His styles reflect America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He discusses some of the issues that people in America face on a daily basis. I think this is what gives him his distinctive American style.