I CANNOT think love thrives by artifice, Or can disguise its mood, and show its face. I would not hide one portion of my heart Where I did give it and did feel 'twas right, Nor feign a wish, to mask a wish that was, Howe'er to keep it. for no cause except Myself would I be loved. What were't to me, My lover valued me the more, the more He saw me comely in another's eyes, When his alone the vision I would show, Becoming to? I have sought the reason oft, They paint love as a child, and still have thought It was because true love, like infancy, Frank, trusting, unobservant of its mood, Doth show its wish at once, and means no more! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DISCORDANTS: 1 by CONRAD AIKEN YOUTH AND AGE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE MELANCHOLIA by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR PERIMEDES, THE BLACKSMITH: PHILLIS AND CORIDON by ROBERT GREENE SUDDEN LIGHT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI EIGHTEEN SIXTY-ONE by WALT WHITMAN ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 2. ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE, 1740 by MARK AKENSIDE |