Question

Read these stanzas from Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poems.

"The Poet and His Song"

"An Easy-Goin’ Feller"

A song is but a little thing,
And yet what joy it is to sing!
In hours of toil it gives me zest,
And when at eve I long for rest;
When cows come home along the bars,
And in the fold I hear the bell,
As Night, the shepherd, herds his stars,
I sing my song, and all is well.

Ther' ain't no use in all this strife,
An' hurryin', pell-mell, right thro' life.
I don't believe in goin' too fast
To see what kind o' road you've passed.
It ain't no mortal kind o' good,
'N' I would n't hurry ef I could.
I like to jest go joggin' 'long,
To limber up my soul with song.

How are the messages of these two poems similar?

Both poems suggest that music offers contentment in life.
Both poems indicate that people should travel for enjoyment.
Both poems prove that work should be a top priority.
Both poems insist that friends need to celebrate together.

Answer 1

Both poems suggest that music offers contentment in life.

Option A

Step-by-step explanation:

Just like how John Keats calls a thing of beauty to be a joy forever, Paul Laurence depicts that music is something that provides a lot of happiness for the poet.

Here, in the first poem, the poet feels that singing would bring joy and it brings great enthusiasm in hours of hard work.

In the second one, he likes to hype up his soul using a song.

In this way, we can conclude that both the given poems represent that music offers the state of whole satisfaction.