Day-Lewis’s lover, Rosamond Lehmann, later remembered him writing this poem very rapidly in September 1944 and ‘tossing’ it over the table to her ‘with a flick of the wrist and a mock-modest smile’.

It was published in 'Poems 1943-1947' in 1948 and the third stanza features on his gravestone in Stinsford churchyard in Dorset where he is buried close to Thomas Hardy, who he greatly admired.

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IS IT FAR TO GO?

Is it far to go?
A step - no further.
Is it hard to go?
Ask the melting snow,
The eddying feather.

What can I take there?
Not a hank, not a hair.
What shall I leave behind?
Ask the hastening wind,
The fainting star.

Shall I be gone long?
For ever and a day.
To whom there belong?
Ask the stone to say,
Ask my song.

Who will say farewell?
The beating bell.
Will anyone miss me?
That I dare not tell -
Quick, Rose, and kiss me.

C. Day-Lewis