We Two
We Two
Original Text
Palace-Burner: The Selected Poetry of Sarah Piatt, ed. Paula Bennett (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001): 51-52.
1God’s will is – the bud of the rose for your hair,
2 The ring for your hand and the pearl for your breast;
3God's will is – the mirror that makes you look fair.
4 No wonder you whisper: "God's will is the best."
5But what if God's will were the famine, the flood?
6 And were God's will the coffin shut down in your face?
7And were God's will the worm in the fold of the bud,
8 Instead of the picture, the light, and the lace?
9Were God's will the arrow that flieth by night,
11The clod in the valley, the rock on the height –
13God's will is – your own will. What honor have you
14 For having your own will, awake or asleep?
15Who praises the lily for keeping the dew,
16 When the dew is so sweet for the lily to keep?
17God's will unto me is not music or wine.
18 With helpless reproaching, with desolate tears
19God's will I resist, for God's will is divine;
20 And I – shall be dust to the end of my years.
21God's will is – not mine. Yet one night I shall lie
22 Very still at his feet, where the stars may not shine.
24 Because – it is God's will I do, and not mine.
Publication Notes
The Independent, 1874
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004
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