Of Love in Reproof
Of Love in Reproof
Original Text
S. Frances Harrison, Pine, Rose and Fleur de Lis (Toronto: Hart, 1891): 207-08. Internet Archive
1I thought that Life was worth the living,
2I thought that Love was worth the giving.
3Sweet, do you wonder how I know
4What you knew doubtless years ago.
5That Life is made up of follies and vices,
7For though you are young, so young, you go
8To the play or ball in a boddice low,
9And your hair still curls in a childish way,
10And you laugh and sing and jest all day,
11Yet are you older far than me;
12You are not young as a woman should be
13In maiden lore of down-dropt eyes;
14Nor would your cheeks pale in a pure surprise
15Were I to tell you a tender tale.
16Though mine would flush and my voice would fail,
17O Sweet, if ever I tried to speak
18The passion that makes us both fierce and weak.
19It is left me to think what a woman might be,
20Had she your eyes, your laugh of glee.
21Your hair too--spirals of glossy brown,
22I remember the day you took it down--
23With just this difference--hear me, Sweet,
24Am I hard who yesterday knelt at your feet?--
25Her mind should be pure and her heart be young,
26With trust in her eyes and truth on her tongue.
27Once will I crush your hands in mine,
28(I had thought my mother's ring not too fine
29For the dear third finger, but back, my pearl,
30You were meant for a purer if plainer girl!)
31And once will I kiss you, you'll let me, I know,
32(And that is bitter) before I go.
33What! you move away! Well, perhaps it is best;
34Your lips are not made to make men rest.
Notes
6] as a pastime. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
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