The Betrothal

The Betrothal

Original Text
Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems (New York and London: Harper, 1923): 26. 6th printing. PS 3525 I495H3 Robarts Library.
1Oh, come, my lad, or go, my lad,
2And love me if you like.
3I shall not hear the door shut
4Nor the knocker strike.
5Oh, bring me gifts or beg me gifts,
6And wed me if you will.
7I'd make a man a good wife,
8Sensible and still.
9And why should I be cold, my lad,
10And why should you repine,
11Because I love a dark head
12That never will be mine?
13I might as well be easing you
14As lie alone in bed
15And waste the night in wanting
16A cruel dark head.
17You might as well be calling yours
18What never will be his,
19And one of us be happy.
20There's few enough as is.
Publication Start Year
1921
Publication Notes
Published in Poetica Erotica, ed. T. R. Smith: 302
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme