The Poet
Publication Information
(2009)
Biographical Information
Steven M. Allen is an American composer, conductor, and ethnomusicologist. At Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi, he earned a bachelor's degree in music and studied conducting and composition under Robert L. Morris. In 2002, he relocated to Washington, D.C., to study composition and conducting at Howard University. His graduate studies include composition with Andrew Simpson and Steven Strunk at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Catholic University of America; ethnomusicology with Kip Lornell, George Washington University; and choral conducting and pedagogy with James Jordan, Westminster Choir College, and William Weinert, Eastman School of Music. He earned master's and doctoral degrees from Catholic University of America. He has composed symphonic works and spirituals; art songs for voice and chamber ensembles; and an opera, Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadows: An Opera Based on the Lives and Love of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore, is featured in the PBS documentary The Life and Times of Paul Laurence Dunbar, produced by Frederick Lewis, 2016. In 2014, his chamber opera The Poet: A Chamber Opera on the Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar made its world premiere in honor of Dunbar’s birthday and the opening of the newly renovated Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.
Recommended Citation
Allen, Steven M., "The Poet" (2017). Dunbar Music Archive. 356.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/356
Streaming Media
COinS
Text
Characters:
Paul Laurence Dunbar – Bass-Baritone
Matilda Dunbar – Mezzo-Soprano
Major James Pond – Tenor
Alice Ruth Moore – Soprano
6 boys – Sopranos
Original Cast:
Paul Laurence Dunbar – Gregory J. Watkins
Matilda Dunbar – Denyce Graves
Alice Ruth Moore - Lisa Edwards-Burns
Major James Pond – Daniel Noone
Scenes:
Synposis:
The Poet was constructed as a vignette from the larger work, commemorating the opening of the newly reconstructed Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2014.
The setting is a beautiful and sunny day in Dayton, OH, June 27, 1896. The 24th birthday of Paul Laurence Dunbar was one he’d never forget. Dunbar worked as an elevator operator at the Callahan Building, located in downtown Dayton. It was there where he continued to write poems and other stories with the hope of one day finding success.
Paul’s life changed suddenly when he is met at home by Major James Pond, his manager. Major Pond delivers the news that William Dean Howells, the foremost literary critic of the late nineteenth century, has reviewed Paul’s work, Majors and Minors (1896), in the prestigious Harper’s Weekly Magazine. As with Dunbar’s earlier work Oak and Ivy (1895), the larger “Majors” section contained what Paul considered his most serious work, poems in standard English. The smaller “Minors” section contained his verses written in dialect. Though the review of the work was to make Paul an instant national success, Paul is distressed to find that Howells has praised only the works written in dialect, referring to them as “darky poems.” The critic has expressed astonishment at the idea that such well-written verses were “from someone who appeared to be of pure African blood… black skin and thick rolled-out lips.”
As fate would allow, the same evening, Paul stumbles upon a photograph of Alice Ruth Moore and a review of her book, Violets and Other Tales (1895), in the Boston Monthly Review Magazine. Astonished at her beauty, Paul decides to write her a letter.
Within six months of corresponding, Paul finds himself uncontrollably in love, while Alice contemplates the promises of an incredible fairy-tale romance. Then, Paul again receives life-changing news. Major Pond had become a welcomed guest in the Dunbar home. This time he bears news of Paul’s reading tour in London. Of course, Paul is ecstatic at the thought of being recognized as an American Poet, and “not just some darky with the gift to rhyme.”
Sharing the joy with his mother, Matilda, he asks her if she will sing for him. Listening to her sing, Paul pens the poem “When Malindy Sings,” in devotion to his mother.