NOW, O now I needs must part, Parting though I absent mourn, Absence can no joy impart, Joy, once fled, can ne'er return. While I live I needs must love: Love lives not when life is gone. Now, at last, despair doth prove Love divided loveth none. Sad despair doth drive me hence, That despair unkindness sends; If that parting be offence, It is she which then offends. Dear, when I from thee am gone, Gone are all my joys at once. I loved thee and thee alone, In whose love I joyèd once. While I live I needs must love: Love lives not when life is gone. Now at last despair doth prove Love divided loveth none. And although your sight I leave, Sight wherein my joys do lie, Till that death do sense bereave, Never shall affection die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SHRUBBERY, WRITTEN IN A TIME OF AFFLICTION by WILLIAM COWPER THE TRUTH by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE SHIPWRECK, SELECTION by WILLIAM FALCONER SONNET: 45 by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY EPISTLE TO DR. ARBUTHNOT by ALEXANDER POPE IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 54 by ALFRED TENNYSON |