A crumb, a crumb, and a little seed,
And the bird will sing all day,
But the poet must have a gilded cage,
Or his songs are all laid away.
[_]
Circa 1890–91. Paul Laurence Dunbar Collection, MSS 659, series 1, box 1, OHS.
Quoted by permission. (This poem also appears in Martin and Hudson's Paul Laurence
Dunbar Reader.)