WHEN ALL IS DONE

by: Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

HEN all is done, and my last word is said,

And ye who loved me murmur, "He is dead,"

Let no one weep, for fear that I should know,

And sorrow too that ye should sorrow so.

 

When all is done and in the oozing clay,

Ye lay this cast-off hull of mine away,

Pray not for me, for, after long despair,

The quiet of the grave will be a prayer.

 

For I have suffered loss and grievous pain,

The hurts of hatred and the world's disdain,

And wounds so deep that love, well-tried and pure,

Had not the pow'r to ease them or to cure.

 

When all is done, say not my day is o'er,

And that thro' night I seek a dimmer shore:

Say rather that my morn has just begun,--

I greet the dawn and not a setting sun,

When all is done.

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