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To Her

By Paul Laurence Dunbar

Topics: classic

Your presence like a benison to me     Wakes my sick soul to dreamful ecstasy,     I fancy that some old Arabian night     Saw you my houri and my heart's delight.     And wandering forth beneath the passionate moon,     Your love-strung zither and my soul in tune,     We knew the joy, the haunting of the pain     That like a flame thrills through me now again.     To-night we sit where sweet the spice winds blow,     A wind the northland lacks and ne'er shall know,     With clasped hands and spirits all aglow     As in Arabia in the long ago.

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"Your presence like a benison to me..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Paul Laurence Dunbar delivers a powerful performance in "To Her"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:Paul Laurence Dunbar

"Your presence like a benison to me..." by Paul Laurence Dunbar

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Paul Laurence Dunbar

About Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) was an American poet and novelist who was one of the first African-American writers to gain national prominence. His poems in dialect—including "When Malindy Sings"—and standard English explore Black life with humor, pathos, and dignity.

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"As lone I sat one summer's day,     With mien deje..."

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