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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OH, ASK ME NOT, by JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL Poet's Biography First Line: Love, should I set my heart upon a crown Last Line: And love you, love you, love you! | |||
Love, should I set my heart upon a crown, Squander my years, and gain it, What recompense of pleasure could I own? For youth's red drops would stain it. Much have I thought on what our lives may mean, And what their best endeavor, Seeing we may not come again to glean, But, losing, lose forever. Seeing how zealots, making choice of pain, From home and country parted, Have thought it life to leave their fellows slain, Their women broken-hearted; How teasing truth a thousand faces claims, As in a broken mirror, And what a father died for in the flames His own son scorns as error; How even they whose hearts were sweet with song Must quaff oblivion's potion, And, soon or late, their sails be lost along The all-surrounding ocean: Oh, ask me not the haven of our ships, Nor what flag floats above you! I hold you close, I kiss your sweet, sweet lips, And love you, love you, love you! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BEFORE BEDTIME by JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL OCTOBER by JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL SUNBURNT BOYS by JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL SUNDOWN by JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL THE OLD CLOCK by JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL TO MELVIN GARDNER: SUICIDE by JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL WHEN I GO HOME by JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL LAMENT by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON SEVEN TIMES SIX [ - GIVING IN MARRIAGE] by JEAN INGELOW |
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