IT was Love who called me, a morning in the meadow, "Come out, sweetheart! Come out, sweetheart, the Spring is in the land. All the world is wonderful with dappled sun and shadow, Here I wait with happiness held close in either hand." O, I brake my spinning off, Eager to be free. Duty frowned beside the wheel, "Do thy work!" quoth she. It was Love who called me at noontide in the greenwood, "Come out, sweetheart! Come out, sweetheart, and in the silence rest! Take thine ease beneath the leaves as softly as a queen should, Both my arms about thee and thy head upon my breast." O, I raised my weary head, Longing wistfully: Duty set the wheel astir, "Do thy work!" quoth she. Through the gloom of twilight the nesting birds were calling -- Sick at heart I turned the wheel whom none might summon more, When, like touch of rain in May, came sound of swift feet falling, And lo, Love stood beside me where Duty was before! "Since thou wouldst not at my call, Sweet, I come to thee. I am here to turn thy wheel And aid thy task," quoth he. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPISTLE TO SIR ROBERT WALPOLE (1) by HENRY FIELDING A PRAYER IN SPRING by ROBERT FROST SONNET: 13. TO MR. H. LAWES, ON HIS AIRS by JOHN MILTON THE PROGRESS OF POETRY by JONATHAN SWIFT SONNET TO THE MOON by HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS THE SOLDIER'S TEAR by THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 43. FAREWELL TO JULIET (5) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT CALL OF THE OPEN by LAURA E. BRADSHAW TO A FRIEND IN THE NAVY, SICK AT HOME by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |