The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar/If

IF If life were but a dream, my Love, And death the waking time; If day had not a beam, my Love, And night had not a rhyme,— A barren, barren world were this Without one saving gleam; I 'd only ask that with a kiss You 'd wake me from the dream.

If dreaming were the sum of days, And loving were the bane; If battling for a wreath of bays Could soothe a heart in pain,— I 'd scorn the meed of battle's might, All other aims above I 'd choose the human's higher right, To suffer and to love!