RPO -- Bliss Carman : "If Death be Good"

Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

"If Death be Good"

(Sappho LXXIV)

1If death be good,

2Why do the gods not die?

3If life be ill,

4Why do the gods still live?

5If love be naught,

6Why do the gods still love?

7If love be all,

8What should men do but love?

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics (Boston: L. C. Page, 1903), p. 87. D-10 6569 Fisher Library (copy 78).
First publication date: 1903
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 4:2002/1/26

Other poems by Bliss Carman