1969
A Last Song (op. 41, no. 1)
Composed by 
Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber Text by 
Robert Graves
Robert Graves "A Last Song" is the first song of Samuel Barber's late song cycle Despite and Still, Op. 41.
Text
A Last Song
by Robert Graves
A last song, and a very last, and yet another
O, when can I give over?
Must I drive the pen until blood bursts from my nails
And my breath fails and I shake with fever,
Or sit well wrapped in a many colored cloak
Where the moon shines new through Castle Crystal?
Shall I never hear her whisper softly:
“But this is truth written by you only,
And for me only;
Therefor, love, have done?”