Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1872-1906, a Black American poet and a very fine one at that. If you can find his work you'll see black dialect written by a black. It's a lot like Robbie Burns to me, if you don't open up your ears to the language, it just looks like bad English, but if you can really hear it....wow.

This is just an excerpt, the poem's too long for me to type, called "When Malindy Sings".

G'way an' quit dat noise, Miss Lucy-

Put dat music book away;

What's de use to keep on tryin'?

Ef you practice twell you're gray,

You cain't sta't no notes a-flyin'

Lak de ones dat rants and rings

F'om de kitchen to de big woods

When Malindy sings....

...Easy 'nough fu' folks to hallah,

Lookin' at de lines an' dots,

When dey ain't no one kin sence it,

An' de chune comes in, in spots;

But fu' real melojous music,

Dat jes' stikes yo' hea't and clings,

Jes' you stan' an' listen wif me

When malindy sings.

Frank in the "melojous" swamps.