PARDON, Love! pardon master and lord! I vow That of my voice, and verse, and future years, My sobs, and sighs, my doleful cries, and fears, Shall be no other cause, but only thou. Alas! how vengeful fortune mocks me now! Who late made love my mark for laugh and jeers. Now ta'en, I yield; plain my defeat appears. My freedom, too long kept, I disallow. If for its sake thy conquest I delayed, Use me no worse, thy fame thus greater made. If thy first onset caused me not to yield, Think that a conqueror valiant, noble, great, More loves the captive who succumbs, though late, And bravely fought, and stoutly kept the field. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CAGED GOLDFINCH by THOMAS HARDY DIVINATION BY A DAFFADILL by ROBERT HERRICK IN SICKNESS (1714) by JONATHAN SWIFT THE ACHARNIANS: A PLEA FOR THE ENEMY by ARISTOPHANES THE SUCCESSOR by WILLIAM ROSE BENET PSALM 38. DOMINE NE IN FURORE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE GRATITUDE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |