After Many Days

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



I'VE always been a faithful man
An' tried to live for duty,
But the stringent mode of life
Has somewhat lost its beauty.
The story of the generous bread
He sent upon the waters,
Which after many days returns
To trusting sons and daughters,
Had oft impressed me, so I want
My soul influenced by it,
And bought a loaf of bread and sought
A stream where I could try it.
I cast my bread upon the waves
And fancied then to await it;
It had not floated far away
When a fish came up and ate it.
And if I want both fish and bread,
And surely both I'm wanting,
About the only way I see
Is for me to go fishing.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
46

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBDEFEGHIHJHKHDLBL
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 590
Words 125
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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