An Annotation of Paul Laurence Dunbars Ships That Pass In The Night :: Dunbar Ships Pass Night Poem Essays

An comment of Paul Laurence Dunbars Ships That Pass In The Night Laurence Dunbars Ship That Pass In The Night is a cry for probability for all men, regardless of race. Dunbars verse directly parallels a passage from Frederick Douglass autobiography that gives an account of his life as a slave. Both Douglass and Dunbar look out at the transports that sail by and see hopes for societal changes. Although they both sought change, their aspirations were quite different. Frederick Douglass watched the ships from ashore, wishing for granting immunity and for slavery to be abolished. Paul Laurence Dunbar on the other hand was already a free man. He was on a ship, still more(prenominal) of an opportunity than Douglass had, yet he was still in search for clean opportunities for Afri rump Americans. The new opportunities that he seeks atomic number 18 upon a ship somewhere sailing in the dark night and keep passing him by. colligate from the poem below are best read in coordinate from the beginning of the poem to the endShips That Pass In The Nightby Paul Laurence Dunbar Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massingI look far out into the pregnant night,Where I can hear a solemn booming gunAnd catch the freshness of a random light,That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.My tearful eyeball my souls deep hurt are glassingFor I would hail and check that ship of ships.I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud,My voice falls deceased a foot from mine own lips,And but its ghost doth dig that vessel, passing, passing.O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing,O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the darkIs there no hope for me? Is there no wayThat I may sight and check that speeding shinnyWhich out of sight and sound is passing, passing?The speaker begins by expression out into the night sky and sees a storm brew. The storm represents the future, and give care the nature of a storm, the future is unpredictable. A storm can either be threatening with thunder and lightning, or just a engaging rain that comes and goes. The speaker does not know what the future will convey for African Americans. He only knows that something is going to happen. The night is pregnant with opportunity and equality, waiting to deliver to people of all races. But the storm brewing on the night horizon is both threatening and promising for the speaker.