Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO WISH MYSELF COURAGE, by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO WISH MYSELF COURAGE, by                 Poet's Biography
First Line: On the day when youth is no more upon me
Last Line: Long at the birth -- and sing me the youth-song!
Subject(s): Youth; Aging


On the day when youth is no more upon me
I will write of the leaves and the moon in a tree top!
I will sing then the song, long in the making --
When the stress of youth is put away from me.

How can I ever be written out as men say?
Surely it is merely an interference with the long song --
This that I am now doing.

But when the spring of it is worn like the old moon
And the eaten leaves are lace upon the cold earth --
Then I will rise up in my great desire --
Long at the birth -- and sing me the youth-song!





Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net