How could I love you more? I would give up Even that beauty I have loved too well That I might love you better. Alas, how poor the gifts that lovers give -- I can but give you of my flesh and strength, I can but give you these few passing days And passionate words that, since our speech began, All lovers whisper in all ladies' ears. I try to think of some one lovely gift No lover yet in all the world has found; I think: If the cold sombre gods Were hot with love as I am Could they not endow you with a star And fix bright youth for ever in your limbs? Could they not give you all things that I lack? You should have loved a god; I am but dust. Yet no god loves as loves this poor frail dust. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE ECSTASY by HAYDEN CARRUTH SISTER MARIA CELESTE, GALILEO'S DAUGHTER, WRITES TO FRIEND by MADELINE DEFREES THE MEASURE OF THE YEAR by JAMES GALVIN ENVOYS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON LETHE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SENRYU: BLIND DATE by TIMOTHY LIU SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: OSCAR HUMMEL by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |