Paul Laurence Dunbar
The son of formerly enslaved parents, Paul Laurence Dunbar became the first African American poet to win national and international fame, writing “We Wear the Mask” and “Sympathy” before his death at thirty-three.
Theme
identity
3 poems
identity
Into My Own
A youthful vow of independence, “Into My Own” imagines walking into deep woods to become more fully oneself.
Walt Whitman
The Brooklyn printer who reinvented poetry: across forty years and a single ever-growing book, Leaves of Grass, Whitman pioneered free verse and gave America its most expansive voice.