The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar · Paul Laurence Dunbar

Right's Security

100 of 424 · 1 min of reading

What if the wind do howl without,

And turn the creaking weather-vane;

What if the arrows of the rain

Do beat against the window-pane?

Art thou not armored strong and fast

Against the sallies of the blast?

Art thou not sheltered safe and well

Against the flood's insistent swell?

What boots it, that thou stand'st alone,

And laughest in the battle's face

When all the weak have fled the place

And let their feet and fears keep pace?

Thou wavest still thine ensign, high,

And shoutest thy loud battle-cry;

Higher than e'er the tempest roared,

It cleaves the silence like a sword.

Right arms and armors, too, that man

Who will not compromise with wrong;

Though single, he must front the throng,

And wage the battle hard and long.

Minorities, since time began,

Have shown the better side of man;

And often in the lists of Time

One man has made a cause sublime!

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!

· · ·

End of part 100 of 424