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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SHE SHALL NOT GUESS by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT

Poet Analysis

First Line: EVEN IF I DIED NO SOUND SHOULD TELL IT HER
Last Line: BEARS BUT BETRAYS IT NOT. SHE SHALL NOT GUESS.
Subject(s): DEATH; DEAD, THE;

EVEN if I died no sound should tell it her.
Death babbles, but the calm of her dear eyes
In vain would ask, no tell-tale breath should stir
The lips still treasuring a thought unwise.
How vain my life has been in its disguise,
Left unregarded, her least pensioner,
Yielding to all, unasking even with sighs
The dole of hope not Heaven could quite confer.
—To-day behold me on this page her name
Over my own inscribing, with no prayer,
Nor daring even to kneel in my distress.
What I have written in this candle's flame
Shrinks ere 'tis finished, and the incensed air
Bears but betrays it not. She shall not guess.



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