Testament

From the Albuquerque Morning Journal, November 16, 1914. By Sara Teasdale.

I said, “I will take my life
    And throw it away;
I who was fire and song
    Will turn to clay.

“I will lie no more in the night
    With shaken breath.
I will toss my heart in the air
    To be caught by Death.”

But out of the night I heard,
    Like the inland sound of the sea,
The hushed and terrible sob
    Of all humanity.

Then I said, “Oh, who am I
    To scorn God to His face?
I will bow my head and stay
    And suffer with my race.”