I said I splendidly loved you; it's not true. Such long swift tides stir not a land-locked sea. On gods or fools the high risk falls -- on you -- The clean clear bitter-sweet that's not for me. Love soars from earth to ecstasies unwist. Love is flung Lucifer-like from Heaven to Hell. But -- there are wanderers in the middle mist, Who cry for shadows, clutch, and cannot tell Whether they love at all, or, loving, whom: An old song's lady, a fool in fancy dress, Or phantoms, or their own face on the gloom; For love of Love, or from heart's loneliness. Pleasure's not theirs, nor pain. They doubt, and sigh, And do not love at all. Of these am I. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SOLDIER GOING TO THE FIELD by WILLIAM DAVENANT THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 27 by OMAR KHAYYAM PAMPINEA by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE ABBOT OF INISFALEN by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM HAREBELLS by ANNE MILLAY BREMER THE LEGEND OF BOASTFUL BILL by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. THE FATAL DREAM; OR, THE UNHAPPY FAVOURITE; AN ELEGY by EMANUEL COLLINS |