"Its absolute incapacity of offence." —WALTER PATER, in @3Gaston de Latour.@1 WHY wilt thou so laboriously excuse Thy long and often absences from me? Or when did I thy wanderings accuse Or plant a hedge about thy liberty? I must have waited all thy faith to prove If I would love thee for thy faithfulness; I loved because it was my will to love And my love stands in my will's steadfastness. Thou sayest thou hast won a second youth, Right well I know it, thou hast stolen mine, But never shalt thou filch away my truth, Which stays my own although all else be thine: Then knock no more, who canst not lose the key, Since thee I love, and not thy love of me. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PROBLEM by RALPH WALDO EMERSON ON LORD HOLLAND'S SEAT NEAR MARGATE, KENT by THOMAS GRAY BALLAD: TIME OF ROSES by THOMAS HOOD AN HYMN OF HEAVENLY BEAUTY by EDMUND SPENSER THE KNIGHTS: THE POET AND HIS RIVALS by ARISTOPHANES |