hose lines he is still the first
poet, Whitman not excepted, but he is first with nothing like the
difference in real merit and the fame he has above all others. But in
passing from him, here is Dunbar at his best, dialectic and otherwise:

"When de co'n pone's hot--
Dey is a time in life when nature
Seems to slip a cog an' go,
Jes' a-rattling down creation,
Lak an ocean's overflow;
When de worl' jes' stahts a-spinnin'
Lak a pickaninny's top,
An' you feel jes' lak a racah,
Dat is trainin' fu' to trot--
When yo' mammy says de blessin'
An' de co'n pone's hot.

"When you set down at de table,
Kin' o' weary lak an' sad,
An' you's jes' a little tiwhed
An' purhaps a little mad;
How yo' gloom tu'ns into gladness,
How yo' joy drives out de doubt,
When de oven do' is opened,
An' de smell comes po'in out;
Why, de 'lectric light o' Heaven
Seems to settle on de spot,
When yo' mammy says de blessin'
An' de co'n pone's hot.

"When de cabbage pot is steamin'
An' de bacon good an' fat,
When de chittlins is a-spuller'n'
So's to show you whah dey's at;
Tek away yo' sody biscut,
Tek away yo' cake an' pie,
Fu' de glory time is comin',
An' it's 'proachin' mighty nigh,
An' yo' want to jump an' hollah,
Dough you know you'd bettah not
When yo' mammy says de blessin',
An' de co'n pone's hot.

"I have hyeahd o' lots o' sermons,
An' I've hyeahd o' lots o' prayers,
An' I've listened to some singin'
Dat has tuck me up de stairs
Of de Glory-lan' an' set me
Jes' below de mahstah's th'one,
An' lef' my hea't a-singin'
In a happy aftah tone;
But dem wu'ds so sweetly murmured
Seemed to tech de softes' spot,
When my mammy says de blessin',
An' de co'n pone's hot."

This is not so great a poem as the "Cotter's Saturday Night" by Burns,
because the spiritual element and the whole scope of the tenderest
concerns of the family and of life in that poem are left out of this.
But in Dunbar's poem, where only the festival is pictured, the scene
is so intensified that one feels the warmth and sees the glow of the
evening fire and inhales the appetizing odors of the coming homely
cheer, and can see back of these the tender care and ineffable love of
the "Mammy," who puts the crowning touch upon her love with the