Page:The complete poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.pdf/59

 So jes' let me hyeah it ringin',
 * Dough de chune be po' an' rough,

It's a pleasure; an' de pleasures
 * O' dis life is few enough.

Now, de blessed little angels
 * Up in heaben, we are told,

Don't do nothin' all dere lifetime
 * 'Ceptin' play on ha'ps o' gold.

Now I think heaben'd be mo' homelike
 * Ef we'd hyeah some music fall

F'om a real ol'-fashioned banjo,
 * Like dat one upon de wall.

you could sit with me beside the sea to-day, And whisper with me sweetest dreamings o'er and o'er; I think I should not find the clouds so dim and gray, And not so loud the waves complaining at the shore. If you could sit with me upon the shore to-day, And hold my hand in yours as in the days of old, I think I should not mind the chill baptismal spray, Nor find my hand and heart and all the world so cold. If you could walk with me upon the strand to-day, And tell me that my longing love had won your own, I think all my sad thoughts would then be put away, And I could give back laughter for the Ocean's moan!

are no beaten paths to Glory's height, There are no rules to compass greatness known; Each for himself must cleave a path alone, And press his own way forward in the fight. Smooth is the way to ease and calm delight, And soft the road Sloth chooseth for her own; But he who craves the flower of life full-blown, Must struggle up in all his armor dight! What though the burden bear him sorely down And crush to dust the mountain of his pride, Oh, then, with strong heart let him still abide; For rugged is the roadway to renown, Nor may he hope to gain the envied crown, Till he hath thrust the looming rocks aside.