The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar/Love-Song

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

For works with similar titles, see Love Song.

LOVE-SONG

If Death should claim me for her own to-day,
  And softly I should falter from your side,
Oh, tell me, loved one, would my memory stay,
  And would my image in your heart abide?
Or should I be as some forgotten dream,
  That lives its little space, then fades entire?
Should Time send o'er you its relentless stream,
  To cool your heart, and quench for aye love's fire?

I would not for the world, love, give you pain,
  Or ever compass what would cause you grief;
And, oh, how well I know that tears are vain!
  But love is sweet, my dear, and life is brief;
So if some day before you I should go
  Beyond the sound and sight of song and sea,
'T would give my spirit stronger wings to know
  That you remembered still and wept for me.