[Skip Navigation]

Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Forever

Paul Laurence Dunbar

I had not known before
  Forever was so long a word.
The slow stroke of the clock of time
  I had not heard.

’Tis hard to learn so late;
  It seems no sad heart really learns,
But hopes and trusts and doubts and fears,
  And bleeds and burns.

The night is not all dark,
  Nor is the day all it seems,
But each may bring me this relief—
  My dreams and dreams.

I had not known before
  That Never was so sad a word,
So wrap me in forgetfulness—
  I have not heard.
Online text © 1998-2009 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar | Dodd, Mead And Company, 1922
Add Keyword Tags

Separate each tag with a space. You may add as many tags as you'd like to each poem.

What are tags?
Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

More Info

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any Internet device.