If you could sit with me beside the sea to-day, And whisper with me sweetest dreamings o’er and o’er; I think I should not find the clouds so dim and gray, And not so loud the waves complaining at the shore. If you could sit with me upon the shore to-day, And hold my hand in yours as in the days of old, I think I should not mind the chill baptismal spray, Nor find my hand and heart and all the world so cold. If you could walk with me upon the strand to-day, And tell me that my longing love had won your own, I think all my sad thoughts would then be put away, And I could give back laughter for the Ocean’s moan! By Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 – 1906 From The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1913) by Paul Laurence Dunbar. This poem is in the public domain
