Note

I discovered William Rose Benét’s poetry collection “Perpetual Light” completely by chance while exploring the work of his brother, Stephen Vincent Benét, and was completely struck by it. Compiled after the death of his first wife and split into two sections, poems written before and then after her passing, it contains some of the most impactful love poems I have ever read. While his brother Stephen is / was the more renowned peot of the Benét siblings, William’s writing continues to be my favorite.

The text of this piece is pulled from a his poem “The Second Covenant” which dwells on the nature of love and it’s relationship with death, and how love can linger in places and people even after both parties involved have passed on. The fact his poem is found in the “before” section of the collection makes it even more powerful to me, and I was so struck by it I immediately began writing this piece.