What's The Use

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



WHAT'S the use o' folks a-frownin'
When the way's a little rough?
Frowns lay out the road fur smilin'
You'll be wrinkled soon enough.
What's the use?
What's the use o' folks a-sighin'?
It's an awful waste o' breath,
An' a body can't stand wastin'
What he needs so bad in death.
What's the use?
What's the use o' even weepin'?
Might as well go long an' smile.
Life, our longest, strongest arrow,
Only lasts a little while.
What's the use?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
120

Quick analysis:

Scheme ababCadadCaefeC
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 432
Words 83
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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