"The Unlucky Apple" illustrates Dunbar's talent for recognizing the irony of common expressions and the vox populi. In this case, he takes an idiomatic expression denoting approval ("the apple of eye") and connects it with two great stories associated with apples, the fall of man from God's grace and the fall of Troy. The connection/allusion suggests that the speaker's calling "my darling" the apple of his eye will doom the relationship. Also, Dunbar is using many of the techniques associated with conventional poetry: regular rhyme and rhythm; some poetic diction ("'twas"). This stands in contrast to his poems written in dialect.