If Hands Could Free You, Heart, by Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin

If Hands Could Free You, Heart

If hands could free you, heart,

Where would you fly?

Far, beyond every part

Of earth this running sky

Makes desolate? Would you cross

City and hill and sea,

If hands could set you free?

I would not lift the latch;

For I could run

Through fields, pit—valleys, catch

All beauty under the sun—

Still end in loss:

I should find no bent arm, no bed

To rest my head.

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