Death & Dying

On Going

by Countee Cullen 1903–1946

From Color (1925)

Death & Dying

A grave is all too weak a thing
To hold my fancy long;
I’ll bear a blossom with the spring,
Or be a blackbird’s song,

I think that I shall fade with ease,
Melt into earth like snow,
Be food for hungry, growing trees,
Or help the lilies blow.

And if my love should lonely walk,
Quite of my nearness fain,
I may come back to her, and talk
In liquid words of rain.

✦ ✦ ✦

For Willard Johnson

MLA

Cullen, Countee. “On Going.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/cullen/71/.

Chicago

Cullen, Countee. “On Going.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/cullen/71/.

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