The Life That I Have facts for kids

The Life That I Have is a short and powerful poem. It was written by Leo Marks during World War II. This poem was special because it was used as a secret code! Sometimes people also call it Yours.

Secret Poems in World War II

During World War II, secret messages were very important. People needed to send information without the enemy understanding it. One way to hide messages was to use poems as a special kind of code.

How Poems Became Secret Codes

Imagine you have a secret message. You could use a famous poem to help hide it. Each word or letter in the poem could stand for something in your message. But there was a problem! If the enemy knew which famous poem you were using, they could figure out your secret. This made the codes unsafe.

Leo Marks' Clever Idea

Leo Marks was a smart person who worked with codes. He realized that using famous poems was too risky. So, he had a brilliant idea: why not write new, original poems? If the poems were new, the enemy wouldn't be able to find them in books or anywhere else. This made the codes much safer and harder to break.

The Story Behind the Poem

Leo Marks wrote The Life That I Have on Christmas Eve in 1943. He wrote it to remember his girlfriend, Ruth, who had sadly passed away. The poem was very personal to him.

A Special Agent and a Secret Poem

On March 24, 1944, Leo Marks gave this special poem to a brave British agent named Violette Szabo. Violette was part of a secret group called the Special Operations Executive. This group helped fight against the Nazis during the war. Violette was later captured and killed by the Nazis. The poem became a symbol of her courage and sacrifice.

The Poem's Fame

The Life That I Have became very famous because of a movie. In 1958, a film called Carve Her Name with Pride was made about Violette Szabo's life. The poem was included in the movie. In the film, they said Violette's husband had written the poem. Leo Marks allowed this, as long as his name wasn't mentioned as the author.

The Poem Itself

Here is the beautiful and meaningful poem:

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.