The Life That I Have
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.
Great poem & fitting tribute to a very courageous lady who paid the ultimate price in the fight against tyranny.
Violette, your memory lives on.
The poem is a wonderful tribute to a wonderful lady. We owe her and many more like her so much
shareThe poem was written by Leo Marx who was a British cryptographer in SOE.
Interestingly, his father owned a bookshop in London at 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD. The film of that name starred Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft.
I think, from my memory of his excellent book, that Leo Marks wrote the poem for his girlfriend who was in the WAAF. She went to Canada with the WAAF and was killed whilst there.
He used to write short "code poems" for the SOE agents to use as an emergency code if their main one was compromised. He had this one in his desk drawer so gave it to Violette Szabo when she was being prepared to go to France.
I normally do not have much interest in poetry but always find this one very moving.
MB
I was prepared for some sappy poem to come out of her lovers mouth, but, I too, was very impressed with its beauty.
shareI plan to do a calligraphic version of this on parchment for a dear friend's wedding present from me.
It's one of the few poems I can recite from memory, in spite of almost being a Lit major.
It came across as quite sappy and in the style of propaganda when it was said through out the film till its use in the closing scenes, which then was very emotional.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".