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Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

At the Tavern


              1    A lilt and a swing,
              2    And a ditty to sing,
              3  Or ever the night grow old;
              4    The wine is within,
              5    And I'm sure t'were a sin
              6For a soldier to choose to be cold, my dear,
              7For a soldier to choose to be cold.

              8    We're right for a spell,
              9    But the fever is -- well,
            10  No thing to be braved, at least;
            11    So bring me the wine;
            12    No low fever in mine,
            13For a drink more kind than a priest, my dear,
            14For a drink is more kind than a
           priest.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1913), Facsimile in The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, ed. Joanne M. Braxton (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1993), pp. 226-27. PS 1556 AI 1993 Robarts Library.
First publication date: 1903
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 4:2002/4/3*4:2002/4/3

Rhyme: aabccdb eefggdf

Other poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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