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Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

The Debt


              1This is the debt I pay
              2Just for one riotous day,
              3Years of regret and grief,
              4Sorrow without relief.

              5Pay it I will to the end --
              6Until the grave, my friend,
              7Gives me a true release --
              8Gives me the clasp of peace.

              9Slight was the thing I bought,
            10Small was the debt I thought,
            11Poor was the loan at best --
            12God! but the interest!

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), p. 213. 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

Rhyme: aabb

Other poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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