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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AMORIS VICTIMA: 5 by ARTHUR WILLIAM SYMONS

Poet Analysis

First Line: LOVE TURNS TO HATE, THEY SAY; AND SURELY I
Last Line: WHO CANNOT HATE, AND YET WHO MAY NOT LOVE?
Subject(s): HATE; LOVE;

Love turns to hate, they say; and surely I
Have cause enough to hate you till I die.
Do you not hate me? must I not hate you?
Show me the way it's done, and I'll outdo
Your bravest. But what's this? If I surprise,
Not tears, in those inexorable eyes?
Ah! by those tears, think not that we shall bring
So dear a love to be an outcast thing.
Love turns to hate: I would it turned to hate!
We were not then so wholly desolate.
You will not let me love you; yet now, see,
If hate be not impossibility.
What shall we do, O God in heaven above,
Who cannot hate, and yet who may not love?



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