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Lyrics of Love and Laughter

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

To a Dead Friend

Additional Information
  • Year Published: 1913
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States of America
  • Source: Dunbar, P.L. (1913). The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company.
  • Readability:
    • Flesch–Kincaid Level: 6.5
  • Word Count: 102
  • Genre: Poetry
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It is as if a silver chord
Were suddenly grown mute,
And life’s song with its rhythm warred
Against a silver lute.

It is as if a silence fell
Where bides the garnered sheaf,
And voices murmuring, “It is well,”
Are stifled by our grief.

It is as if the gloom of night
Had hid a summer’s day,
And willows, sighing at their plight,
Bent low beside the way.

For he was part of all the best
That Nature loves and gives,
And ever more on Memory’s breast
He lies and laughs and lives.