HER LAST SONNET
(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.