First published in 1922, &quot;The Complete Poems&quot; of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a republication of his major poetry, is an attempt to reclaim Dunbar as a poet of permanent importance.<br />Once considered the leading African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar&rsquo;s posthumous reputation went into a decline in the 1920&rsquo;s, amid charges that he had accommodated negative stereotypes by writing poetry in black dialect.<br /><br />William Dean Howells helped establish Dunbar&rsquo;s national reputation when he favourably reviewed Dunbar&rsquo;s collection of poetry. Howells recognized the exceptional quality of Dunbar&rsquo;s black dialect poetry but commented that there was nothing notable about Dunbar&rsquo;s standard English poetry. This judgment was to haunt the young Dunbar. Seeing himself as a poet who, as he said in &ldquo;The Poet,&rdquo; &ldquo;<i>sang of life serenely sweet,/With now and then a deeper note,&rdquo; Dunbar was perplexed that the world &ldquo;turned to praise&rdquo; only his jingles &ldquo;in a broken tongue</i>.&rdquo;