To E. H. K.

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



ON THE RECEIPT OF A FAMILIAR POEM

To me, like hauntings of a vagrant breath
From some far forest which I once have known,
The perfume of this flower of verse is blown.
Tho' seemingly soul-blossoms faint to death,
Naught that with joy she bears e'er withereth.
So, tho' the pregnant years have come and flown,
Lives come and gone and altered like mine own,
This poem comes to me a shibboleth:
Brings sound of past communings to my ear,
Turns round the tide of time and bears me back
Along an old and long untraversed way;
Makes me forget this is a later year,
Makes me tread o'er a reminiscent track,
Half sad, half glad, to one forgotten day!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
91

Quick analysis:

Scheme X ABBAABBAXCDXCD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 636
Words 122
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 1, 14

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…

All Paul Laurence Dunbar poems | Paul Laurence Dunbar Books

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    "To E. H. K." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/28971/to--e.-h.-k.>.

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