The Life That I Have

The Life That I Have (sometimes referred to incorrectly as "Yours") is a short poem written by Leo Marks and used as a poem code. In the Second World War, famous poems were used to encrypt messages. This was, however, found to be insecure because enemy cryptographers were able to locate the original from published sources.

Leo Marks countered this by using his own products. "The Life That I Have" was an original poem composed on Christmas Eve 1943 and was originally written by Marks in memory of his girlfriend Ruth, who had just died in a plane crash in Canada.

On 24th March 1944, the poem was issued by Marks to Violette Szabo, a French agent of Special Operations Executive who was eventually captured, tortured and killed by the Nazis. It was made famous by its inclusion in the 1958 movie about Szabo, called "Carve Her Name with Pride".

The text of the poem reads as follows:

The life that I have Is all that I have And the life that I have Is yours

The love that I have Of the life that I have Is yours and yours and yours

A sleep I shall have A rest I shall have Yet death will be but a pause

For the peace of my years In the long green grass Will be yours and yours and yours

Bibliography

* Marks relates his briefing of Violette Szabo prior to her first mission, and his giving the poem to her in Chapter 65 of this book.
* A small 34 page book with the text of the poem, illustrated by his wife.

External references

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051454/ "Carve Her Name with Pride" Movie details] (at the Internet Movie Database)
* [http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6740&poem=29819 Words of the poem]