Paul Laurence Dunbar



                        A Choice


They please me not –these solemn songs
That hint of sermons covered up.
‘Tis true the world should heed its wrongs,
      But in a poem let me sup,
Not simples brewed to cure or ease
Humanity's confessed disease,
But the spirit-wine of a singing line,
      Or a dew-drop in a honey cup!


Paul Laurence Dunbar