If
If life were but a dream, my Love,And death the waking time;If day had not a beam, my Love,And night had not a rhyme,
A barren, barren world were thisWithout one saving gleam;I'd only ask that with a kissYou'd wake me from the dream.
If dreaming were the sum of days,And loving were the bane;If battling for a wreath of baysCould soothe a heart in pain,
I'd scorn the meed of battle's might,All other aims aboveI'd choose the human's higher right,To suffer and to love!
By:Paul Laurence Dunbar
http://www.poetry.com/lovepoems/lovepoem.asp?id=228 I think that this author is trying to say that love is worth every consequence that you have to face and no matter what he would have to suffer through he would always choose love. This author uses metaphors to make you get a really good image of what he is trying to explain. saying things such as like punishment to love.