Just Because: 'Invitation to Love'

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) wrote his first poem when he was 6 and published two in his city's newspaper at the age of 16. His parents had been slaves in Kentucky before the Civil War, and his mother learned to read specifically so that she could help him in his studies. Dunbar wrote poems in both dialect and standard English. In all, he wrote a dozen books of poetry, four novels, four compilations of short stories, one play, and the lyrics for a musical. from Poem-a-Day:

Invitation to Love

Come when the nights are bright with stars

Or come when the moon is mellow;

Come when the sun his golden bars

Drops on the hay-field yellow.

Come in the twilight soft and gray,

Come in the night or come in the day,

Come, O love, whene'er you may,

And you are welcome, welcome.

You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,

You are soft as the nesting dove.

Come to my heart and bring it to rest

As the bird flies home to its welcome nest.

Come when my heart is full of grief

Or when my heart is merry;

Come with the falling of the leaf

Or with the redd'ning cherry.

Come when the year's first blossom blows,

Come when the summer gleams and glows,

Come with the winter's drifting snows,

And you are welcome, welcome.