For K.R. On Her Sixtieth Birthday

Blow out the candles of your cake.

They will not leave you in the dark,

Who round with grace this dusky arc

Of the grand tour which souls must take.

You who have sounded William Blake,

And the still pool, to Plato's mark,

Blow out the candles of your cake.

They will not leave you in the dark.

Yet, for your friends' benighted sake,

Detain your upward-flying spark;

Get us that wish, though like the lark

You whet your wings till dawn shall break:

Blow out the candles of your cake.