I LOVED a maid (oh, she was fair of face!) But common words above Was my true love— So I was silent for a little space— Yet, 'gainst the day I meant that she should hear me, I sought for stately words that might endear me. My ardent lips, I vowed, should not repeat What countless lovers swear:— "Oh, thou art fair!" I scorned to merely say, "I love thee, Sweet!" So spent long days with rhetoric and tutor, In framing sentences I dreamed might suit her. Oh, how I pondered what she best might hear! Words should like jewels shine To make her mine— No commonplaces must offend her ear: But while for proper words my passion tarried I learned the maiden some one else had married! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COMPANIONS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON LOVE'S TENDRILS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BEAUTY THAT IS NEVER OLD by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON MANHATTAN, 1609 by EDWIN MARKHAM CHARLOTTE CORDAY (REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL, JULY 17, 1793) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALBERT SCHIRDING by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |