Newly discovered Paul Laurence Dunbar poems
An unpublished poem was penned on the flyleaf of a book he presented to Joseph S. Cotter in 1894:
“To my friend - Joseph S. Cotter, December 18th, 1894
“I had searched thro’ the world for the world’s greatest treasure —
In the temple of Art, in the palace of Pleasure;
In the marts of the cities where riches and pride
Sprang up from the compost and bloomed side by side.
And still did I search but its prize still eluded,
Till weary of wandering, sad and deluded,
I would fain have abandoned the quest in the end —
But the treasure appeared in the love of a friend.“
The poem “To Anna C.” was found in the archives of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library at Wright State University:
“You laugh, my friend, and say I dote
Upon some maiden’s fancied charms.
Well, list, and I will picture you
The maid who stirred my love to arms.”
— Excerpt from “To Anna C.”
DAYTON — A copy of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s book of poems, “Oak and Ivy,” had stood on Patrick Orsary’s bookshelf in Cincinnati for years.
“My grandfather had it first and then my mother had it for years,” he said.
He knew it had been signed by Dunbar, the Dayton native who became the first internationally known black poet.
“I was looking at it one day and noticed the poem he had written inside the front cover,” Orsary said.
It was written to Joseph S. Cotter, a poet, educator and contemporary of Dunbar who founded the Paul Laurence Dunbar School in Louisville.
Thinking it might be of interest, he did some research that led him to a University of Dayton website and Dunbar expert Herbert Martin.
“He got right back to me, we corresponded for a while and I decided to sell him the book,” Orsary said.
Even though the volume is battered, Martin said the price — $50 — was a bargain for a signed first-edition copy. “I’ve wanted one for 40 years.”
The eight-line poem inside, about the value of friendship, is one of two unpublished poems by Dunbar that have come to Martin this summer. The University of Dayton professor emeritus has acquired and judged both to be authentic.
The other, a 30-line poem “To Anna C.” that praises female beauty, was in the archives of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library at Wright State University.
A staff member suggested to Wright State President David Hopkins that a framed copy would make a good gift for Martin, who received an honorary degree from the university in June.
“It was the perfect gift,” said Martin, who said, “I knew immediately I had never read it and that it had never been published.”
There has been a recent cluster of Dunbar discoveries.
Four months ago, Martin said, a researcher from England discovered three other poems Dunbar wrote in Colorado, which he visited for his health not long before he died of tuberculosis at age 33.
Martin, who supervised the publishing of Dunbar’s five novels in November 2009, hopes all five of the newly-discovered poems will eventually be included in a new edition of Dunbar’s verse.
“I personally have no doubt that both are the work of Dunbar. The timing is right. The penmanship and, specifically, the signature are his,” Martin said. “There is no evidence anyone has forged his work.”
If further proof is required, “I would take the poems to the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, where most of his writings are kept, and compare these to his other writings and letters.”
The poem at Wright State is believed to have been written to Anna Coons. Martin said Dunbar is known to have written poems to and for friends on their birthdays and other special occasions.
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