The Debt in  General   

This is the debt I pay
Just for one riotous day,
Years of regret and grief,
Sorrow without relief.
Pay it I will to the end --
Until the grave, my friend,
Gives me a true release --
Gives me the clasp of peace.
Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best --
God! but the interest!

By Paul Laurence Dunbar

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Other poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar:

• A Choice
• A Golden Day
• A Negro Love Song
• Accountability
• At the Tavern
• Common Things
• Confirmation
• Distinction
• Douglass
• Encouraged
• Encouragement
• Frederick Douglass
• Howdy, Honey, Howdy
• If I Could But Forget
• Little Brown Baby
• Merry Autumn
• Morning
• My Little March Girl
• Old
• Ships that Pass in the Night
• Signs of the Times
• Song
• Summer in the South
• Sympathy
• The Barrier
• The Debt
• The Haunted Oak
• The Made to Order Smile
• The Old Front Gate
• The Paradox
• The Unlucky Apple
• Theology
• To Dan
• We Wear the Mask
• When Malindy Sings