| Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Little Book of Modern Verse. 1917. |
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| 140. “I Would I Might Forget That I Am I” |
| | | By George Santayana |
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| I WOULD I might forget that I am I, | |
| And break the heavy chain that binds me fast, | |
| Whose links about myself my deeds have cast. | |
| What in the body’s tomb doth buried lie | |
| Is boundless; ’t is the spirit of the sky, | 5 |
| Lord of the future, guardian of the past, | |
| And soon must forth, to know his own at last. | |
| In his large life to live, I fain would die. | |
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| Happy the dumb beast, hungering for food, | |
| But calling not his suffering his own; | 10 |
| Blessèd the angel, gazing on all good, | |
| But knowing not he sits upon a throne; | |
| Wretched the mortal, pondering his mood, | |
| And doomed to know his aching heart alone. | |
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