Lyrics Of Lowly Life (1896) Is A Collection Of Poems By African American Author Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published While Dunbar Was At A Turning Point In His Career As One Of The Nation's Leading Black Poets, Lyrics Of Lowly Life Combined His Hugely Successful Volumes Oak And Ivy (1892) And Majors And Minors (1896), Establishing His Reputation As An Artist With A Powerful Vision Of Faith And Perseverance Who Sought To Capture And Examine The Diversity Of The African American Experience. In The Poet And His Song, Dunbar Compares The Art Of Poetry To Tilling The Soil, A Slow And Painstaking Process Requiring Full Commitment, Body And Soul, To The Task At Hand: My Days Are Never Days Of Ease; I Till My Ground And Prune My Trees.