87. Let Me Live Out My Years. John G. Neihardt. Modern American Poetry

Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern American Poetry. 1919.

John G. Neihardt. 1881–

87. Let Me Live Out My Years

LET me live out my years in heat of blood!
Let me die drunken with the dreamer's wine!
Let me not see this soul-house built of mud
Go toppling to the dusk—a vacant shrine.

Let me go quickly, like a candle light	5
Snuffed out just at the heyday of its glow.
Give me high noon—and let it then be night!
Thus would I go.

And grant that when I face the grisly Thing,
My song may trumpet down the gray Perhaps.	10
Let me be as a tune-swept fiddlestring
That feels the Master Melody—and snaps!