Finding Hope in Poetry: Analyzing Paul Laurence Dunbar's "The Lesson"

Question 1

• In helping others, people often help themselves.
• The solitude of nature is preferable to the company of people.
• By letting others fail, people empower one another to improve.
• It is always the darkest in the moments before the dawn.

Question 2

• "A thought stole into my saddened heart, / And I said, 'I can cheer some other soul / By a carol's simple art.'"
• "And I thought of myself so sad and lone, / And my life's cold winter that knew no spring;"
• "My cot was down by a cypress grove, / And I sat by my window the whole night long,"
• "As out of the gloom of the cypress grove / The mocking-bird sings at night."

Answer:

Just took the test and got it right, "People frequently assist themselves by helping others," is the part A response. "A notion slipped into my dejected heart, / And I replied, 'I can cheer some other soul / By a carol's simple art,'" is the part B response.

Who is Paul Laurence Dunbar?

American poet, novelist, and short story writer Paul Laurence Dunbar lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Before the American Civil War, Dunbar's parents were enslaved in Kentucky and he was born in Dayton, Ohio. As a young child, Dunbar started creating stories and poetry.

In addition to many pieces in normal English, Dunbar included some of his first dialect poetry in Oak and Ivy. One of the latter is "Sympathy," one of his most well-known poems, in which he somberly describes the predicament of Black people in American society.

Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask" makes reference to individuals who conceal their genuine emotions and feelings from others by donning a "mask." He makes reference to the happy expression in the poem. The reader's interpretation of the poet's perspective on the speaker, reader, and subject matter of the poem. The poem's vocabulary, metrical regularity or irregularity, syntax, use of metaphorical language, and rhyme all contribute to the "mood" that permeates the experience of reading the poem.

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