Both of Paul's parents, who had been born slaves, had a love for literature. His father Joshua, had escaped slavery, moved to Canada, and returned to fight in the Civil War. It was after the was that he met and married his mother Matilda.

Paul had written his first poem when he was seven years old. He was an excellent, well-behaved and diligent student, and graduated from high school with honors in 1891. Even though he was the only African American in the school, he was elected class president and delivered the class's graduation poem.

Since the death of his father seven years before, he had to work to support himself and his mother. (Some accounts say that his parents had divorced.) After his graduation he could only find employment as an elevator operator. In between calls he would write poems and articles for various midwestern newspapers while studying some of his favorite poets, including the likes of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats, Poe, and Longfellow. In 1893 he took out a loan to publish his first book Oak and Ivy.

Dunbar had developed a style that was double-voiced about race; seemingly carefree in Black dialect but more serious and brooding when in standard English. The perhaps best and most famous of his dialect poems was When Malindy Sings, featured on the front page of The observer shown above (published as a tribute after his death). His more serious side is seen in his Sympathy, shown below, a self-lamenting piece wherein he muses about a "caged bird."

Dunbar had learned of the folkways of rural Blacks from stories told by his parents, which provided for him a rich source of material. He would perform these poems in character during readings. Dunbar often received criticisms for depicting Blacks as being too easy going and for having too many uncritical portrayals of them. But a reading of his We Wear the Mask, shown above, reveals Dunbar's awareness of the subversiveness and social insight often hidden under the guise of simple Black dialect.

As the demand for his poetry grew, Dunbar began to cultivate literary friendships who helped him publish his two most famous works Majors and Minors (1895) and Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896), shown above. He married the African American poet Alice Ruth Moore in March of 1898.

During his heyday hospitality was showered on him and he readily partook of it, and began drinking heartily. He had been working long hours in a library and it was beginning to take a toll on his health. His drinking drove wedges between him and his close friends, including in wife who separated from him. Although he lingered on, his health continued to decline until the end came on February 9, 1906.