 | Poems |  |
11
THE CONTRADICTIONS OF LOVE.
In Love what contradiction lies,
Love's all made up of joy and sorrow;
His April face, of smiles and sighs,
Will laugh to-day and weep to-morrow.
Love's all made up of joy and sorrow;
His April face, of smiles and sighs,
Will laugh to-day and weep to-morrow.
Though child, he has a giant's power;
Though blind, his aim he misses never;
Though god, he'll die within an hour;
Though wing'd, he'll sometimes stay for ever.
Though blind, his aim he misses never;
Though god, he'll die within an hour;
Though wing'd, he'll sometimes stay for ever.
Yes, Love is all a contradiction;
Those who love best the worst agree;
Love's a sad fact, a laughing fiction—
For mark you how the rogue serves me:
Those who love best the worst agree;
Love's a sad fact, a laughing fiction—
For mark you how the rogue serves me:
His fires within my bosom blaze,
Yes, there incessantly they glow;
While, through my eyes, his fountain plays
With as continual a flow.
Yes, there incessantly they glow;
While, through my eyes, his fountain plays
With as continual a flow.
12
But, ah! no help to my desires
In either flame or flood appears;
My tears refuse to quench Love's fires,
His fires refuse to dry my tears.
In either flame or flood appears;
My tears refuse to quench Love's fires,
His fires refuse to dry my tears.
I burn and stream both in a breath;
And, oh! the dreadful aggravation,—
Am doom'd to die a double death,
At once by flood and conflagration.
And, oh! the dreadful aggravation,—
Am doom'd to die a double death,
At once by flood and conflagration.
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