The Sand-Man

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



I KNOW a man
With face of tan,
But who is ever kind;
Whom girls and boys
Leave games and toys
Each eventide to find.
When day grows dim,
They watch for him,
He comes to place his claim;
He wears the crown
Of Dreaming-town;
The sand-man is his name.
When sparkling eyes
Droop sleepywise
And busy lips grow dumb;
When little heads
Nod toward the beds,
We know the sand-man's come.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

22 sec read
127

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCCBDDEFFEGCHIIH
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 369
Words 74
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18

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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