Caroling Dusk/The Debt

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

For other versions of this work, see The Debt (Dunbar).

THE DEBT^[1]

This is the debt I payJust for one riotous day,Years of regret and grief,Sorrow without relief.

Pay it I will to the end—Until the grave, my friend, Gives me a true release—Gives me the clasp of peace.

Slight was the thing I bought,Small was the debt I thought,Poor was the loan at best—God! but the interest!

1. Copyright 1896 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc.