Dunbar: The Debt

[grllopez]

This is a very personal poem, and yet can be universally understood.

It was written in 1902, a few years before the poet's death. Apparently, he was suffering the natural consequences of a mistake he made some time before, and he was dealing with major regret. It was only a small mistake, he judges, but oh, the pain and suffering it had caused, and how he must carry it the rest of his life, unto death.