HER LAST SONNET
(Una Montgomery wrote this sonnet 5 days before her sudden and most unexpected death)
(Una Montgomery wrote this sonnet 5 days before her sudden and most unexpected death)
Now seven decades and two years have passed
Since to the darkness of a wintry world
My first uncertain feeble wail I cast
And from the warm womb spin uncurled.
I came incognisant of any past
The future yet a scroll to be unfurled
The waters still untoed, the die uncast
The plain of life unneedled, purl unpurled.
Now with a dimmed experienced eye I scan
The woven fabric of some seventy years
See what I made of the allotted span
The patterned tale of hopes and joys and tears.
No use regretting folly, fault and fray
Cast off comes sure as night must follow day.
Since to the darkness of a wintry world
My first uncertain feeble wail I cast
And from the warm womb spin uncurled.
I came incognisant of any past
The future yet a scroll to be unfurled
The waters still untoed, the die uncast
The plain of life unneedled, purl unpurled.
Now with a dimmed experienced eye I scan
The woven fabric of some seventy years
See what I made of the allotted span
The patterned tale of hopes and joys and tears.
No use regretting folly, fault and fray
Cast off comes sure as night must follow day.