Tears, vows, and prayers win the hardest heart; Tears, vows, and prayers have I spent in vain; Tears cannot soften flint, nor vows convert; Prayers prevail not with a quaint disdain. I lose my tears, where I have lost my love; I vow my faith, where faith is not regarded; I pray in vain, a merciless to move: So rare a faith ought better be rewarded. Yet though I cannot win her will with tears, Though my soul's idol scorneth all my vows, Though all my prayers be to so deaf ears, No favor though the cruel fair allows, Yet will I weep, vow, pray to cruel she; Flint, frost, disdain, wears, melts, and yields, we see. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SEVEN TWILIGHTS: 6 by CONRAD AIKEN SISTER MARIA CELESTE, GALILEO'S DAUGHTER, WRITES TO FRIEND by MADELINE DEFREES THE FLAME LIGHTS UP by DAVID IGNATOW TO WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE BOSTON ATHENAEUM by AMY LOWELL STUDY FOR A GEOGRAPHICAL TRAIL; 4. NEW JERSEY by CLARENCE MAJOR SPIRITUAL ISOLATION: A FRAGMENT by ISAAC ROSENBERG DEDICATION TO THE LATER SONNETS TO URANIA by GEORGE SANTAYANA |