"When Dey 'Listed Colored Soldiers": Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetic engagement with the Civil War, masculinity, and violence.

Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetic treatment of the Civil War and its legacies explores heroism, patriotism, citizenship, death, mourning, and trauma. In reflecting on the war, considered a worthy and elevated national theme, the author found an acceptable yet powerful way to set black suffering alongside white, to testify to African American contributions and sacrifices, to figure a form of haunting bound up with the sin of racial slavery, and to pass comment on the disappointments and abuses of the post-Reconstruction era. Through readings of the poems, "When Dey 'Listed Colored Soldiers," "The Colored Soldiers," "The Unsung Heroes," "Robert Gould Shaw," and "The Haunted ...