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University of Virginia Library

Blackberries

by William Allingham

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

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[May loving bosom loving bosom press]

[Some extol passion far above]

[Ruddy double-flower of a Kiss]

[My Darling, you have no father or mother]

[To-day since I have seen her face]

[The expectancy of joy]

[Ev'n in thy arms, O Fair!]

[Tho' bright with youthful bloom and grace]

[Mary would have loved me well]

[O girl of comely form and face]

[I laugh'd in Pleasure's face]

[“I will have none but a Queen]

[Whenever I see from my loneliness]

[Not a Venus-Minerva could charm if she lack'd]

[For a woman's true thought in wait you must lie]

[If any two can live together well]

[By your withholdings you have lost his heart]

[To be Prince, many men would refuse]

[Of Wives it were hard to bear]

[With whom were it a grievous lot to live?]

[Old Man may captivate Miss in her teens]

[Beware what you discover]

[Women, in and out of season]

[Men's wives' opinions, what are they to us?]

[A woman's prime is nearly done]

[If all might choose their sex, there would not then]

[A woman will give a man a guinea]

[Good Marriage, good Marriage, the greatest prize]

[With a Man for thy mate, be content, O Woman, in married life]

[Right Marriage: elevation in communion]

[Whatever joys await the blest above]

[Love's lips are always young]

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[O girl of comely form and face]

O girl of comely form and face,
Were half the sweetness and the grace
Within thy soul, how precious thou!
Mere lovely cloud or blossom now.

Ungrateful! when such dear delight
Flows to me from her very sight.
And can I see her soul aright?
God's index we must never slight.

58

Yet, stay: how much is drawn from race?
How much to culture should we trace?
How much is bloom of health and youth?
How much her own, in deepest truth?

And what do all these questions prove?
This plainly—you are not in love
With Fiordilisa; else, I swear,
You'd find her past expression fair;
And how or why, would nothing care.