Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DESPAIRING LOVER, by JOHN GLANVILL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DESPAIRING LOVER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Break, break, my foolish heart
Last Line: Die all at once, and in one mighty grief expire.
Subject(s): Love - Complaints


BREAK, break, my foolish heart,
Loaded with love, and with despair opprest.
How canst thou bear thy smart?
How rule the ferment of this lab'ring breast?
No more the swelling cloud's black hoard retain;
Break, break, thou foolish heart, and vent th' included pain.

How cruel is thy fate,
Doom'd to despair, tho' meeting no disdain?
Thy nymph too soft to hate,
Shares all thy cares, and pities all thy pain.
In vain; for all moves not her rigid will;
The wish may be to save, but the resolve's to kill.

How can I hope redress,
Sworn not so much as to request a cure?
Who, to preserve her peace,
Have vow'd despair, and chosen to endure;
Silent must be, in pity to her pain,
And never, never ask, for fear I should obtain.

The pulses of thy frame
Throb thick with pain, and strong with anguish move;
The breath that fans thy flame,
In sighs now ventilates thy hopeless love;
Each various aliment of the nat'ral life,
Now feeds but thy despair, and but foments thy grief.

Break then, thou foolish heart;
Wisely I'd die, since I can never live;
Make the bad bus'ness short;
Who'd thus still in continu'd deaths survive?
Come, courage; 'twill but one strong pang require:
Die all at once, and in one mighty grief expire.





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