![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/The-Lover-and-the-Moon.jpg\")
<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\nby Paul Laurence Dunbar<\/p>\n
A lover whom duty called over the wave,
\nWith himself communed: “Will my love be true
\nIf left to herself? Had I better not sue
\nSome friend to watch over her, good and grave?
\nBut my friend might fail in my need,” he said,
\n“And I return to find love dead.
\nSince friendships fade like the flow’rs of June,
\nI will leave her in charge of the stable moon.”
\nThen he said to the moon: “O dear old moon,
\nWho for years and years from thy thrown above
\nHast nurtured and guarded young lovers and love,
\nMy heart has but come to its waiting June,
\nAnd the promise time of the budding vine;
\nOh, guard thee well this love of mine.”
\nAnd he harked him then while all was still,
\nAnd the pale moon answered and said, “I will.”
\nAnd he sailed in his ship o’er many seas,
\nAnd he wandered wide o’er strange far strands:
\nIn isles of the south and in Orient lands,
\nWhere pestilence lurks in the breath of the breeze.
\nBut his star was high, so he braved the main,
\nAnd sailed him blithely home again;
\nAnd with joy he bended his footsteps soon
\nTo learn of his love from the matron moon.
\nShe sat as of yore, in her olden place,
\nSerene as death, in her silver chair.
\nA white rose gleamed in her whiter hair,
\nAnd the tint of a blush was on her face.
\nAt sight of the youth she sadly bowed
\nAnd hid her face ‘neath a gracious cloud.
\nShe faltered faint on the night’s dim marge,
\nBut “How,” spoke the youth, “have you kept your charge?”
\nThe moon was sad at a trust ill-kept;
\nThe blush went out in her blanching cheek,
\nAnd her voice was timid and low and weak,
\nAs she made her plea and sighed and wept.
\n“Oh, another prayed and another plead,
\nAnd I could n’t resist,” she answering said;
\n“But love still grows in the hearts of men:
\nGo forth, dear youth, and love again.”
\nBut he turned him away from her proffered grace.
\n“Thou art false, O moon, as the hearts of men,
\nI will not, will not love again.”
\nAnd he turned sheer ’round with a soul-sick face
\nTo the sea, and cried: “Sea, curse the moon,
\nWho makes her vows and forgets so soon.”
\nAnd the awful sea with anger stirred,
\nAnd his breast heaved hard as he lay and heard.
\nAnd ever the moon wept down in rain,
\nAnd ever her sighs rose high in wind;
\nBut the earth and sea were deaf and blind,
\nAnd she wept and sighed her griefs in vain.
\nAnd ever at night, when the storm is fierce,
\nThe cries of a wraith through the thunder pierce;
\nAnd the waves strain their awful hands on high
\nTo tear the false moon from the sky.<\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was an influential African American poet, novelist, and playwright during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio to parents who had been slaves. His mother encouraged his love of literature from a young age. Though self-educated beyond high school, Dunbar wrote prolifically and gained national recognition with his second poetry collection, Majors and Minors, in 1895. This contained his famous poem “We Wear the Mask.”<\/p>\n
Dunbar was acclaimed for his mastery of both dialect poems capturing the voices of African Americans in the rural South as well as traditional English poetry forms. He published several poetry collections and wrote novels, short stories, librettos, songs and plays. His first novel The Uncalled was published in 1898. Despite bouts of illness, Dunbar had a prolific writing career, publishing 12 books of poetry, 4 books of short stories, 5 novels and a play before his untimely death from tuberculosis at age 33. Though his career was short, Dunbar’s impact on American literature was significant. He brought African American perspectives and voices to mainstream 19th century literary circles and served as an inspiration for future generations of Black writers.<\/p>\n
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