Poem by Katharine Tynan

A Song of Going

I would not like to live to be very old,
To be stripped cold and bare
Of all my leafage that was green and gold
In the delicious air.

I would not choose to live to be left alone,
The children gone away,
And the true love that I have leant upon
No more my staff and stay.

I would not live to stretch my shrivelled hands
To an old fire died low,
Minding me of the long-lost happy lands
And children long ago.

Let me be gone while I am leafy yet
And while my birds still sing,
Lest leafless, birdless, my dull heart forget
That ever it had Spring. 

1. Nymphs
2. The Predestined
3. Lenton Communion
4. The Bird’s Bargain
5. Old Song Re-Sung

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