I want to die while you love me, While yet you hold me fair, While laughter lies upon my lips And lights are in my hair. I want to die while you love me, And bear to that still bed, Your kisses, turbulent, unspent, To warm me when I'm dead. I want to die while you love me, Oh, who would care to live Till love has nothing more to ask And nothing more to give! I want to die while you love me And never, never see The glory of this perfect day Grow dim or cease to be.
		Excerpted from Three Centuries of American Poetry, eds. Allen Mandelbaum and Robert D. Richardson, Jr. Copyright © 1999 by Allen Mandelbaum and Robert D. Richardson, Jr. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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