“Let my heart rot out if I concede them.”

Source: Collected Poems and Plays of Rabindranath Tagore

Source: It

Bluebird
The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992)
Context: there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see you.
... I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
... he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
... and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

Cagliostro’s Letter to the English People (1787)

"Love"
The Forerunner (1920)
Context: O love, whose lordly hand
Has bridled my desires,
And raised my hunger and my thirst
To dignity and pride,
Let not the strong in me and the constant
Eat the bread or drink the wine
That tempt my weaker self.
Let me rather starve,
And let my heart parch with thirst,
And let me die and perish,
Ere I stretch my hand
To a cup you did not fill,
Or a bowl you did not bless.