Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow
Roses and Pearls
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
"Your spoken words are roses fine and sweet,"
"Your spoken words are roses fine and sweet,"
The travels of a tattered and worn songbook
The author's valentine to his wife.
A little girl loses her handkerchiefs and goes on a search for them. She sees some white cloths on the grass high up a hill and climbs up to discover a a little hedgehog washerwoman, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, with her handerchiefs freshly laundered, along with many other interesting articles such as stockings for a hen.
The Midnight wooed the Morning–Star,
A gulf storm evokes memories of childhood.
"Though the winds be dank,"
Let not my love be called idolatry
The author describes his love for his wife.
The poet muses upon seeing Mars in the night sky, and contemplates how Mars’s steadfastness reminds him to endure life’s hardships.
As some rapt gazer on the lowly earth,
A celebration of Florida's tropic climate.
"When the corn ’s all cut and the bright stalks shine"
"Wreathed in myrtle, my sword I'll conceal"
Nature and the movement of clouds at dusk ignite the author's imagination.
An introduction by the books narrator, Tommy Stubbins.
Prometheus stole from Heaven the sacred fire
The author describes coming upon a slave singing in a prison cell, when a tragedy occurred
The traveler is drawn to the beauty of Florida.
The sparse number of maple trees are perceived as exiles in contrast to the jungles of cypress that surround them.
The author marvels at the natural beauty of the Florida Landscape.
An ode to the Florida Cypress.
Pray, what can dreams avail