Laurence Paul Dunbar

Compensation

Because I had loved so deeply,
Because I had loved so long,
God in His great compassion
Gave me the gift of song.

Because I have loved so vainly,
And sung with such faltering breath,
The Master in infinite mercy
Offers the boon of Death.

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"Compensation" is another "Paradox." This poem has two stanza which have paradox meanings. In the first stanza, Paul Dunbar repeats the phrase "Because I had loved so" to emphasize his appreciation about his days when he had his wife, and his wife as a gift that God gave him in order to pay of his love for his wife. His wife is his source inspiration. In the second stanza, once again, Paul Dunbar repeats the phrase "Because I had loved so" to emphasize what he wants to say. In this stanza, he complains about the paradox of life. While he lives with all his heart and tries to do the good thing for this life by writing beautiful poems and song, his life is sad and in the death: "God offers him the boon of Death." Also, he thinks he loves his wife really much, but she left him forever and never came back until he died. I think sometimes in our lives, we cannot achieve our dreams no matter how hard we try. Some time we have bad friends we treat them good, but they betray us. We may ask God "Is this the compensation you give after all good things I do?"

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