The Writer's Corner: Dunbar’s Inspiration for Summeville’s Arts | Culture | Summerville Journal Scene

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The Writer's Corner: Dunbar’s Inspiration for Summeville’s Arts

Published Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:15 PM

By Ellen E. Hyatt
Summerville Journal Scene ®

While some measure success by what one accumulates—money, possessions, children’s winnings, family rank in the community, etc.—others consider success from what may be considered a more meaningful point of view. How has an individual helped another, bettered an organization, inspired a town?

Before we leave Black History Month, we need to look at writer Paul Laurence Dunbar. His name is among 350 famous African-Americans listed on Websites. And for good reasons.

Dunbar was the son of former slaves who were determined that their son be educated. Even though Dunbar was the sole black student in his class at a high school in Dayton, Ohio, in the late 19th century, he (according to texts containing his works) became “president of the literary society, editor of the school newspaper, and class poet.”

During his life, unfortunately shortened by his succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of 34, Dunbar wrote 6 volumes of poetry, 4 volumes of short stories, and 4 novels. As in many cases, it is not so much how much he wrote but how well he wrote.

Dunbar himself was concerned that the public was seeing him as a speaker of only the black experience. Though Dunbar certainly did capture plantation song and dialect, he really dedicated himself to being a writer striving to capture “universal values and feelings.” And that is why some of us think of him as a success.

By trying to show in his hopeful words: “we are more human than African,” Dunbar continues to inspire others to do likewise. Thereby, in many of his works, he coaxes the universal—regardless of color, race, and all the other discriminating traits that separate individuals.

Consider, for instance, his poem “Life’s Tragedy” of 4 stanzas written in 4 quatrains. In the poem, Dunbar mentions that to which any of us can relate: “To come near to sing the

perfect song/And only by a half-note lost the key,” or a few lines later “To have just missed the perfect love.” These situations are “life’s tragedy.”

In the last stanza, however, Dunbar acclaims that this attitude is “accursed indeed” because that would mean “We count our joys not by the things we have, / But by what kept us from the perfect thing.”

Dunbar’s idea is so important for Summerville, isn’t it? The town must continue to count its “joys” Among those joys are cultural events that enrich our lives: book discussions, the Third Thursday art walks, musical and theatrical performances and areas related to culinary, fabric, sculptural, and written expressions. And more.

Isn’t it wonderful that people like Dunbar continue to inspire? Isn’t it joyous that towns like Summerville continue to feel inspired?

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