AU2101284 SHANAYA MASCARENHAS ASST. PROFESSOR ANDREW BARRETO CREATIVE WRITING 8 AUGUST 2022 THE WRAITH Paul Laurence Dunbar is an American poet, novelist and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th century. The poem, 'The Wraith' is a part of the collection 'The Lyrics of Love and Laughter', published in 1903. He was obsessed with his wife and the poem is about her being in the wrong while the poet victimizes himself and sabotages his love life to the grave. The following paper will contain my perspective of the poem while analyzing it from the poet's point of view. The poem is divided into seven quatrains. The rhyme scheme used is abab, cdcd efef,ghgh,iti.klkl.mnmn.The Word"And"is used more than once at the beginning, which is an Anaphora figure of speech. The poem includes Personification through the use of phrases like "fire sobs," "wind rides," and "raindrop grieves." Simile is identified in the poem" sweet as May days be". Words like "logs crack" are examples of Onomatopoeia. The first reading on the poem shows the side that the poet wants his readers to see that he is the victim, however after digging up on his life the poem can be seen in a different light. The poet expresses his grief and sadness by means of nature. He saved the 'fire sobs' . He wants us to know that even though he should be furious like the fire, he is dejected and thus sobs instead of raging. The bond that they shared was of love-hate and he perhaps regretted his actions that brought on pain for both of them. The rain drops grieve along with the poet as a way of sympathizing with him. Dunbar's wife may have wounded him which makes him detest her but he contradicts that she was sweet as the 'May days'. He also makes use of Onomatopoeia to exaggerate his loneliness as he hears distant sounds after his wife abandons him. The Wraith primarily is about the poet's suffering, anguish, and grief. Here, he demonstrates how both living and inanimate things share his anguish. Such as the logs whining and the fire sobbing. The poet is so depressed that he thinks everyone and everything else is depressed as well In the 4th stanza the poet expresses his guilt, the poet comparing his wife to the sweet "May days" shows that he realizes her importance in his life. He asks for forgiveness but was unforgiven, this is proved when he said ' Down did I fall at your feet, why did you hearken to me ?' It can also be interpreted as him asking her, "why did you still hold on to me?" as he only made her miserable The "death" of the wife here refers to the end of their relationship and not the actual death. He decided to kill her off in his poem but also could not get over as he was in love with her. His insecurity and dubious nature gradually burnt their toxic love to the extent they could no longer

be with each other. Dunbar mentions the "wraith" sitting beside him in an odd manner, as if she is his beloved. At first glance, the poem disguises itself into a husband mourning his wife who he attempts to portray as the antagonist in his lIfe Plantation Child Lullaby An Analysis of the plantation child lullaby I find that this poem the plantation child lullaby can be taken both literally and metaphorically literally Dunbar is expressing memories of being a plantation child during restoration era it is pretty straightforward and easily. understandable and is basically like a description of his surroundings through his eyes or to the eyes of a black man like I said he wrote during the popularity of the plantation tradition where white poets and writers romanticise the situation and relationship between African Americans and Americans metaphorically I think Dunbar is trying to shed light up on the oppression that experience through the years when you look at the poem the first thing you notice is his style of writing he uses African-American vernacular English style developed by the black community while learning the language he wrote in this dialect because the majority of his readers were whites who demanded works exploiting a language and lifestyle stereotypes of the Black American the rhyme scheme employs is very confusing he follows a particular style for a while and then change the type of it which mainly consist of alternate and Rhymes this poem is made up of five stanzas consisting of eight lines each and has an alternating syllable count with each line having a syllable count of 5 6 5 6 and so on moving on to figures of speech you see that he uses imagery all throughout his poem this could be because he wants the reader to understand the poetry through his eyes because like I mentioned before his readers comprises of whites who lived completely different lives from the black America he also uses metaphor to compare the whites with a cold winter and blacks with a homely and warm cabin signifying the large gap they felt between them the major theme portrayed in this poem is one of the oppression felt by the black community in the white world they feel controlled and like there is nothing that they can do to change their situation