SWEET ... Black History Poetry

Dreams
 ~Paul Laurence Dunbar

Dream on, for dreams are sweet:
      Do not awaken!
Dream on, and at thy feet
      Pomegranates shall be shaken.

Who likeneth the youth
      of life to morning?
’Tis like the night in truth,
      Rose-coloured dreams adorning.

The wind is soft above,
      The shadows umber.
(There is a dream called Love.)
      Take thou the fullest slumber!

In Lethe’s soothing stream,
      Thy thirst thou slakest.
Sleep, sleep; ’tis sweet to dream.
      Oh, weep then thou awakest!

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 17, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.