Rendezvous With Death

JFK redux - November 22, 1963

This portrait of JFK by Jamie Wyeth was composed posthumously (1967); the artist reported that he had difficulty with it. Wyeth spent time with both of Jack's surviving brothers, but it was only after he sketched Jack's best friend, Lem Billings, that Wyeth felt like he had what he needed. Beneath the paint is that sketch of Lem, who Jack often introduced to others as his friend "Dilemma."

I have a rendezvous with Death

At some disputed barricade,

When Spring comes back with rustling shaded quench my breath—

It may be I shall pass him still.

I have a rendezvous with Death

On some scarred slope of battered hill,

When Spring comes round again this year

And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows 'twere better to be deep

Pillowed in silk and scented down,

Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,

Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,

Where hushed awakenings are dear...

But I've a rendezvous with Death

At midnight in some flaming town,

When Spring trips north again this year,

And I to my pledged word am true,

I shall not fail that rendezvous.

Alan Seeger (1917)