I Have a Rendezvous with Death

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <p id="id00595" style="margin-top: 4em">I Have a Rendezvous with Death . . .</p> <p id="id00596" style="margin-top: 2em"> I have a rendezvous with Death<br/> At some disputed barricade,<br/> When Spring comes back with rustling shade<br/> And apple-blossoms fill the air —<br/> I have a rendezvous with Death<br/> When Spring brings back blue days and fair.<br/></p> <p id="id00597"> It may be he shall take my hand<br/> And lead me into his dark land<br/> And close my eyes and quench my breath —<br/> It may be I shall pass him still.<br/> I have a rendezvous with Death<br/> On some scarred slope of battered hill,<br/> When Spring comes round again this year<br/> And the first meadow-flowers appear.<br/></p> <p id="id00598"> God knows 'twere better to be deep<br/> Pillowed in silk and scented down,<br/> Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep,<br/> Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,<br/> Where hushed awakenings are dear . . .<br/> But I've a rendezvous with Death<br/> At midnight in some flaming town,<br/> When Spring trips north again this year,<br/> And I to my pledged word am true,<br/> I shall not fail that rendezvous.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />