GIVE me thy youth, give me thy urgent youth; Thy youth to me, who know not youth nor age. For those who serve me I have little ruth; My flaying scourge shall be thine only wage, And yet I call thee from the easy way Knowing, despite thy fear, thou wilt obey. Give me thy youth. GIVE me thy heart, give me thy passionate heart; Thy heart to me, who know not love nor hate. Thy flesh may be a garment rent apart, Thy soul may shiver bare and desolate, But though the snug hearth beckon thy desire, Me thou shalt follow from the lesser fire. Give me thy heart. GIVE me thy life, no less -- thy human life; Thy life to me who know not death nor birth, And I will give thee hungering and strife, The empty praise and mockery of earth, And at the last I will give thee, even I, One boon supreme -- the readiness to die. Give me thy life. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PITY OF IT by THOMAS HARDY THE HAUNTED PALACE by EDGAR ALLAN POE TROY TOWN by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI HELTER SKELTER; OR, THE HUE AND CRY AFTER THE ATTORNEYS by JONATHAN SWIFT THE JEWISH MARTYRS by W. V. B. CLIO, NINE ECLOGUES IN HONOUR OF NINE VIRTUES: 8. OF CONSTANCY by WILLIAM BASSE THE POET, AND HIS INTERPRETERS by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON THE GEOGRAPHER'S GLORY; OR, THE GLOBE IN 1730 by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN A LARGE EVENING AT THE CLUB (AS IT WAS ONCE) by BERTON BRALEY |