Paul Laurence Dunbar: Collected Lyrics
46 / 142
Public-domain lyrics

Equipment

Paul Laurence Dunbar

“Equipment” as printed in The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1913).

Paul Laurence Dunbar: Collected Lyrics Text 46 1913 · historical text
Public domainSong lyricsDialect song
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr">From the Porch at RunnymedeThe Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbarby Paul Laurence DunbarEquipmentEvening→

EQUIPMENT

Verse 2

With what thou gavest me, O Master,

I have wrought.

Such chances, such abilities,

To see the end was not for my poor eyes,

Thine was the impulse, thine the forming thought.

Ah, I have wrought,

And these sad hands have right to tell their story,

It was no hard up striving after glory,

Catching and losing, gaining and failing,

Raging me back at the world's raucous railing.

Simply and humbly from stone and from wood,

Wrought I the things that to thee might seem good.

If they are little, ah God! but the cost,

Who but thou knowest the all that is lost!

If they are few, is the workmanship true?

Try them and weigh me, whate'er be my due!

Credits

Written by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Words by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Historical text published in The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1913); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1913), “Equipment”

Every text in this collected edition is by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906); his works entered the public domain in life-plus-70 jurisdictions in 1977, and the 1913 edition is in the public domain in the United States. The edition carries a Wikisource PD-old determination.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
Keep tracing

More from Paul Laurence Dunbar: Collected Lyrics.

01A Banjo SongPublic-domain lyrics02A Boy's Summer SongPublic-domain lyrics03A ChoicePublic-domain lyrics04A ConfidencePublic-domain lyrics