Life’s Tragedy

Life’s Tragedy

By Paul Laurence Dunbar

It may be misery not to sing at all,
And to go silent through the brimming day;
It may be misery never to be loved,
But deeper griefs than these beset the way.

To sing the perfect song,
And by a half-tone lost the key,
There the potent sorrow, there the grief,
The pale, sad staring of Life’s Tragedy.

To have come near to the perfect love,
Not the hot passion of untempered youth,
But that which lies aside its vanity,
And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.

This, this indeed is to be accursed,
For if we mortals love, or if we sing,
We count our joys not by what we have,
But by what kept us from that perfect thing.

Summary of Life’s Tragedy

  • Popularity of “Life’s Tragedy”: This beautiful poem by an Ohio-based writer, novelist, poet, and short story writer, Paul Laurence Dunbar, first appeared in his collection, Lyrics of Love and Laughter. The collection was published in 1908. The poem outlines simple incidents of life that, if done, could cause sadness and if not, then cause even more sorrow. The beauty of the poem lies in this contradictory thematic strand and its presentation.
  • “Life’s Tragedy” As a Representative of Sorrows and Tragedies: The poet presents a speaker who states in the third person that it could be misery that we do not sing, or become silent, or not win love. However, to see that when you have all of them, and you are still not perfect, causes even more misery. For example, the speaker says that after you sing, you want to be perfect, and it causes further misery, and the same is true of love and passion. In fact, he is of the opinion that we have joys, and we do not count them. But we continue looking at things beyond our capacity, such as becoming perfect in singing or loving, and this causes little tragedies in our lives.
  • Major Themes in “Life’s Tragedy”: Miseries of life, desire for perfection, and desire for possession are three major themes of the poem “Life’s Tragedy.” Dunbar is of the view that sometimes we feel misery because we do not have certain things such as singing talent, love, or tune of some song. However, it becomes our strong desire that we should have perfect not only in singing but also love, and these become impossible to have. Therefore, we desire that we should have something that we do not have, and this causes sorrow. And when this thing comes to us, we desire more. He presents the miseries of life that come with our desires and our passions for things we do not have.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Life’s Tragedy

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s skill of using literary devices is matchless and superb. Following is the analysis of the poem.

  1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /a/ in “It may be misery not to sing at all” and the sound of /i/ in “And to go silent through the brimming day.”
  2. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick successions, such as the sound of /w/ in “what we” or /s/ in “sad staring.”
  3. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /w/ in “We count our joys not by what we have” and the sound of /t/ in “But by what kept us from that perfect thing.”
  4. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Paul Laurence Dunbar used imagery in this poem, such as “Not the hot passion of untempered youth”, “But that which lies aside its vanity” and “For if we mortals love, or if we sing.”
  5. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects that are different in nature. The poet used the metaphor of a brimming day that is akin to a glass full of some liquid.
  6. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols, such as day, love, grief, and misery to show the situation of human beings wanting more and feeling sorrowful.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Life’s Tragedy

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

  1. Diction: It means the type of language. The poem shows good use of formal and poetic diction.
  2. End Rhyme: It means to use verses having matching end words such as day/way and key/tragedy.
  3. Quatrain: It is a Persian stanza having four verses. The poem shows the use of a quatrain in all stanzas.
  4. Repetition: It means to use words or phrases repeatedly to stress upon some theme or idea, such as “It may be misery.” It is repeated in the first stanza.
  5. Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are four stanzas, with each comprising four verses.
  6. Tone: It means the voice of the text. The poem shows a sad, sorrowful, nostalgic, and inevitable tone.

Quotes to be Used

The following lines are useful to quote when talking about the reasons behind the unknown misery of a person.

This, this indeed is to be accursed,
For if we mortals love, or if we sing,
We count our joys not by what we have,
But by what kept us from that perfect thing.