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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 37 by THOMAS CAMPION

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF SHE FORSAKE ME, I MUST DIE
Last Line: THEN COME, DEATH, AND END MY PAIN!
Subject(s): LOVE – UNREQUITED;

IF she forsake me, I must die:
Shall I tell her so?
Alas, then straight she will reply,
'No, no, no, no, no!'
If I disclose my desperate state,
She will but make sport thereat,
And more unrelenting grow.

What heart can long such pains abide?
Fie upon this love!
I would venture far and wide,
If it would remove.
But Love will still my steps pursue,
I cannot his ways eschew:
Thus still helpless hopes I prove.

I do my love in lines commend,
But, alas, in vain;
The costly gifts, that I do send,
She returns again:
Thus still is my despair procured,
And her malice more assured:
Then come, Death, and end my pain!



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