At the Last
There is no denying
That it matters little,
When through a narrow door
We enter a room together,
Which goes after, which before.
Perhaps you are not dying:
Perhaps—there is no knowing—
I shall slip by and turn and laugh with you
Because it mattered so little,
The order of our going.
Credit
This poem is in the public domain.
About this Poem
“At the Last” originally appeared in Grenstone Poems: A Sequence (Frederick A. Stokes, 1917).
Author
Witter Bynner
Witter Bynner was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1881. He graduated from Harvard University in 1902. After college, he worked as a newspaper reporter and, later, as the assistant editor of McClure’s magazine.
Bynner published his first poetry collection, An Ode to Harvard (Small, Maynard, & Co.), in 1907. He was also the author of New Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 1960); Take Away the Darkness (Alfred A. Knopf, 1947); The Beloved Stranger (Alfred A. Knopf, 1919); Tiger (M. Kennerley, 1913); and several other poetry collections.
Date Published
11/11/2017