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Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Confessional

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Search thou my heart;
  If there be guile,
It shall depart
  Before thy smile.

Search thou my soul;
  Be there deceit,
‘T will vanish whole
  Before thee, sweet.

Upon my mind
  Turn thy pure lens;
Naught shalt thou find
  Thou canst not cleanse.

If I should pray,
  I scarcely know
In just what way
  My prayers would go.

So strong in me
  I feel love’s leaven,
I ‘d bow to thee
  As soon as Heaven!
Online text © 1998-2009 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar | Dodd, Mead And Company, 1922
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