WOULD you play the manly lover (Said a graybeard to his son), List, my lad, while I discover How a maiden should be won. Woo her not with boastful phrases, Lest you teach her lip to sneer; Still a suitor's warmest praises In his conduct should appear. Woo her not with senseless sighing; Maidens love a laughing eye: Tell her not that you are "dying," Lest she, mocking, bid you die! Woo her not with weakly whining O'er your poverty of pelf, Lest she answer by declining Both your sorrows and yourself! Woo her with a manly wooing; Giving hostages to Fate, All the heart's devotion showing By its strength to work and wait. Woo her not with idle prattle Whom you fain would make your wife; But with proof that in life's battle You are equal to the strife. Like the knight whose simple suing Won the lady (says the tale), When, despite their wordy wooing, All the rest were doomed to fail: -- "Lady!" quoth the bold Knight Errant, "Brief the story I shall tell: I would wed thee; here's the warrant I shall love and serve thee well!" And, behold! his dexter fingers Crush a horse-shoe, like a reed! And within her lap there lingers All the gold the twain can need! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SURFACES AND MASKS; 30 by CLARENCE MAJOR THE ROAD NOT TAKEN by ROBERT FROST SONNET: TO SLEEP by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 20. AL-'ALIM by EDWIN ARNOLD THE SICK KING IN BOKHARA by MATTHEW ARNOLD SONNET: 1 by RICHARD BARNFIELD ETHELWALD, FR. METRICAL HISTORY OF ST. CUTHBERT by BEDE DARTMOOR: SUNSET AT CHAGFORD: HOMO LOQVITUR by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN |