Oak and Ivy

poetry by Dunbar

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July 16, 2026

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Oak and Ivy was the first published volume of poetry by Paul Laurence Dunbar, released in 1893. Dunbar, the son of former slaves, was the first Black writer in the U.S. to attempt to make a living from his writing and one of the first to achieve national recognition. He published Oak and Ivy at his own expense, selling copies to elevator passengers to cover printing costs. While Dunbar achieved success with poems written in Black dialect, he also penned verses in standard English, some of which poignantly expressed his frustrations as a Black poet in a white supremacist society.12

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African American literature
Paul Laurence Dunbar
…his first volume of poetry, Oak and Ivy. Though not the first Black American to write poetry in so-called Negro dialect, Dunbar was by far the most successful, both critically and financially. Deeply ambivalent about his white readers’ preference for what he called “a jingle in a broken tongue,” Dunbar…
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…his first volume of poetry, Oak and Ivy. Though not the first Black American to write poetry in so-called Negro dialect, Dunbar was by far the most successful, both critically and financially. Deeply ambivalent about his white readers’ preference for what he called “a jingle in a broken tongue,” Dunbar…
Read More