Laurence Paul Dunbar

The Debt

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!

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In this poem, Dunbar, a sensitive poet, tells us his bored some and his hopeless. This is 3 stanzas quantarian poem. In the first stanza, the author tells us his boring days that he has to go through. He is hopeless and try to find a way to release his "sorrow." He catches the readers attention by capitalize "This" word, and he makes the readers want to find out what is his debt. Also, he repeat the vowel a in "pay" (1)and "day"(2) and i in "grief" (3) and "relief" (4) in order to emphasize the boring days and rhyme.

In the second stanza, his hopelessness is rising day by day, and the only way that helps him get out of it: Death. He is really tired from those hard days, and all he wants is a peaceful death. By repeating the “Give me” at the beginning of line 7 and 8, he begs God to release him from these hard days. When one really needs something, he will keep asking. Furthermore, the pain is increased when his pray is not accepted. In the third stanza, he imagines himself after his death. on his dooms day, he has to pay for what he did wrong in his life such as drink and treat his wife so bad.