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Love’s Castle

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Key and bar, key and bar,
  Iron bolt and chain!
And what will you do when the King comes
  To enter his domain?

Turn key and lift bar,
  Loose, oh, bolt and chain!
Open the door and let him in,
  And then lock up again.

But, oh, heart, and woe, heart,
  Why do you ache so sore?
Never a moment’s peace have you
  Since Love hath passed the door.

Turn key and lift bar,
 And loose bolt and chain;
But Love took in his esquire, Grief,
 And there they both remain.
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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