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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ASKING FORGIVENESS, by JOHN FREEMAN Poet's Biography
First Line: I did not say, 'yes, we had better part
Last Line: Forgive!
Subject(s): Forgiveness; Clemency
First Line: I did not say, 'yes, we had better part
Last Line: Forgive!
Subject(s): Forgiveness; Clemency
I DID not say, "Yes, we had better part
Since love is over or must be suppressed."
I did not say, "I'll hold you in my heart
Saint-like, and in the thought of your thought rest,
And pray for you and wish you happiness
In a better love than mine."
I was another man to another woman,
Tears falling or burnt dry were nothing then.
I struck your heart, I struck your mind; inhuman,
Future and past I stabbed and stabbed again,
Cursing the very thought of your happiness
In another love than mine:
—Then left you sick to death, and I like death.
It was a broken body bore me away—
A broken mind—poisoned by my own breath,
And love self-poisoned. ... Was it but yesterday?
—Forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive,
Forgive!
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