Inasmuch as I love you And shall know no peace more unless I am near you, Though you are a flame of will Proud and variable as you are beautiful and dear -- Nevertheless I will go your way, Since you will not go mine. Therefore, although the cool roads of my village Are more pleasant to me than the pavements of your city; Although its dim streets are more kindly than your glaring arcs; Though the unhurried voices of my townspeople Are more friendly music in my ears than the screamings And glib chatter of your city-dwellers: Nevertheless I will go down with you into the city And bruise my heart upon its bricks; Become brother to its shrieking "elevated" And learn to hurry away my days in this brief world Among the grimy roofs that soil the clean young sunshine; Thinking only at long whiles, in summer dusks, Of hushed paths where hurrying feet have never trodden, Of cool lanes white in the splendor of the rising moon. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHILD AND HER STATUE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER FECUNDI CALICES by BACCHYLIDES FOR THE MASTER'S SAKE by MINNIE MASON BEEBE CHANGE UPON CHANGE by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING GLIMPSES OF ITALY: 5. LIKE PAESTUM'S TEMPLE by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |