Lyric Poem · Nature
Common Things
1I like to hear of wealth and gold,
2And El Doradoes in their glory;
3I like for silks and satins bold
4To sweep and rustle through a story.
5The nightingale is sweet of song;
6The rare exotic smells divinely;
7And knightly men who stride along,
8The role heroic carry finely.
9But then, upon the other hand,
10Our minds have got a way of running
11To things that aren't quite so grand,
12Which, maybe, we are best in shunning.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Common Things” by Paul Laurence Dunbar — quilloak.com/poems/common-things
Quick facts
- Poem
- Common Things
- Poet
- Paul Laurence Dunbar
- Length
- 20 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 20 lines · 5 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 8-10 syllables (median 9). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Paul Laurence Dunbar1872–1906
- Source record
- PoetryDBCommon Things by paul-laurence-dunbar, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 c36ace3887a34c02…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.