The Master-Player

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



AN old worn harp that had been played
Till all its strings were loose and frayed,
Joy, Hate and Fear, each one essayed,
To play. But each in turn had found
No sweet responsiveness of sound
Then Love the Master-Player came
With heaving breast and eyes aflame;
The harp he took all undismayed,
Smote on its strings, still strange to song,
And brought forth music sweet and strong.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

21 sec read
132

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAABBCCADD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 377
Words 70
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10

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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