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O SAY NOT PURE AFFECTIONS CHANGE! by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL

Poet Analysis

Last Line: With tenfold force return!
Subject(s): LOVE - NATURE OF; TIME;

O say not pure affections change
When fixed they once have been,
Or that between two noble hearts
Hate e'er can intervene!

Though coldness for a while may freeze
The love-springs of the soul,
Though angry pride its sympathies
May for a time control,

Yet such estrangement cannot last ''"
A tone, a touch, a look,
Dissolves at once the icyness
That crisp'd affection's brook:

Again they feel the genial glow
Within the bosom burn,
And all their pent-up tenderness
With tenfold force return!




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