Classic Southern Literature

1676 to 1923

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Compensation

African-American Poem

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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We Wear the Mask	The Debt

Written Text

Because I had loved so deeply,
Because I had loved so long,
God in His great compassion
Gave me the gift of song.
Because I have loved so vainly,
And sung with such faltering breath,
The Master in infinite mercy
Offers the boon of Death.