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Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906)
Paul Laurence Dunbar's most famous poem is "Sympathy" . He wrote the poem while working in unpleasant conditions at the Library of Congress. It powerfully uses the caged bird metaphor to express the yearning for freedom and the pain of oppression experienced by African Americans. Known for the iconic line "I know why the caged bird sings," which inspired Maya Angelou's and is referenced throughout her autobiographies.
Paul Laurence Dunbar died of tuberculosis on February 9, 1906, at the age of 33. He is interred in the Woodland Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.
Was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar began writing stories and verse when he was a child. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper, and served as president of his high school's literary society.