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The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar/Love-Song

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For works with similar titles, see Love Song.
212224The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar — Love-SongPaul Laurence Dunbar

LOVE-SONG

If Death should claim me for her own to-day,
  And softly I should falter from your side,
Oh, tell me, loved one, would my memory stay,
  And would my image in your heart abide?
Or should I be as some forgotten dream,
  That lives its little space, then fades entire?
Should Time send o'er you its relentless stream,
  To cool your heart, and quench for aye love's fire?

I would not for the world, love, give you pain,
  Or ever compass what would cause you grief;
And, oh, how well I know that tears are vain!
  But love is sweet, my dear, and life is brief;
So if some day before you I should go
  Beyond the sound and sight of song and sea,
'T would give my spirit stronger wings to know
  That you remembered still and wept for me.

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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