Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A SONNET, by SIDNEY GODOLPHIN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Madam, 'tis true, your beauties move Last Line: Reward for his delight? Subject(s): Love - Unrequited | ||||||||
MADAM, 'tis true, your beauties move My heart to a respect, Too little to be paid with love, Too great for your neglect: I neither love, nor yet am sure, For though the flame I find Be not intense in the degree, 'Tis of the purest kind: It little wants of love but pain, Your beauties take my sense, And lest you should that pride disdain My thoughts feel th' influence; 'Tis not a passion's first access Ready to multiply, But like love's calmest state it is Possessed with victory: It is, like love, to truth reduced, All the false values gone, Which were created and induced By fond imagination: 'Tis either fancy or 'tis fate To love you more than I, I love you at your beauties' rate, Less were an injury. Like unstamped gold I weigh each grate, So that you may collect Th' intrinsic value of your fate Safely from my respect: And this respect could merit love, Were not so fair a sight Payment enough, for who dares move Reward for his delight? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON TUTTO E SCIOLTO by JAMES JOYCE APPULDURCOMBE PARK by AMY LOWELL TALE OF THE MAYOR'S SON by GLYN MAXWELL ELEGY FOR AN ENEMY by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET ESSAY ON WHAT I THINK ABOUT MOST by ANNE CARSON A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A LOVER AND HIS MISTRESS by SIDNEY GODOLPHIN |
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