If
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Publication Information
Published in Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896)
Performed by Herbert Woodward Martin
Musical Settings
Theophil Wendt, A Dream (voice and piano) (January 1904)
Robert Owens, If op.15 no.1 (high voice and piano) (May 2014)
Recommended Citation
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, "If" (1896). Dunbar Music Archive. 11.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/11
COinS
Text
If life were but a dream, my Love,
And death the waking time;
If day had not a beam, my Love,
And night had not a rhyme, --
A barren, barren world were this
Without one saving gleam;
I 'd only ask that with a kiss
You'd wake me from the dream.
If dreaming were the sum of days,
And loving were the bane;
If battling for a wreath of bays
Could soothe a heart in pain, --
I'd scorn the meed of battle's might,
All other aims above
I'd choose the human's higher right,
To suffer and to love!