"Since There Is No Escape"

From Wikisource

Jump to: navigation, search
"Since There Is No Escape"
by Sara Teasdale


Since there is no escape, since at the end
     My body will be utterly destroyed,
This hand I love as I have loved a friend,
     This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed;
Since there is no escape even for me
     Who love life with a love too sharp to bear:
The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea
     And hours alone too still and sure for prayer —
Since darkness waits for me, then all the more
Let me go down as waves sweep to the shore
     In pride; and let me sing with my last breath;
In these few hours of light I lift my head;
Life is my lover — I shall leave the dead
     If there is any way to baffle death.


PD-icon.svg This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923. It may be copyrighted outside the U.S. (see Help:Public domain). Flag of the United States.svg