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Home  »  The Book of American Negro Poetry  »  I Want to Die While You Love Me

James Weldon Johnson, ed. (1871–1938). The Book of American Negro Poetry. 1922.

I Want to Die While You Love Me

I WANT to die while you love me,

While yet you hold me fair,

While laughter lies upon my lips

And lights are in my hair.

I want to die while you love me,

And bear to that still bed,

Your kisses turbulent, unspent

To warm me when I’m dead.

I want to die while you love me

Oh, who would care to live

Till love has nothing more to ask

And nothing more to give!

I want to die while you love me

And never, never see

The glory of this perfect day

Grow dim or cease to be.