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Paul Laurence Dunbar - Worn Out
Work rating: Low

You bid me hold my peace
    And dry my fruitless tears,
  Forgetting that I bear
    A pain beyond my years.

  You say that I should smile
    And drive the gloom away;
  I would, but sun and smiles
    Have left my life`s dark day.

  All time seems cold and void,
    And naught but tears remain;
  Life`s music beats for me
    A melancholy strain.

  I used at first to hope,
    But hope is past and, gone;
  And now without a ray
    My cheerless life drags on.

  Like to an ash-stained hearth
    When all its fires are spent;
  Like to an autumn wood
    By storm winds rudely shent,--

  So sadly goes my heart,
    Unclothed of hope and peace;
  It asks not joy again,
    But only seeks release.
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