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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MODERN LOVE: 44, by GEORGE MEREDITH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: They say, that pity in love's service dwells
Last Line: Or foul hypocrisy for truth atone!
Variant Title(s): The Coin Of Pity
Subject(s): Pity
First Line: They say, that pity in love's service dwells
Last Line: Or foul hypocrisy for truth atone!
Variant Title(s): The Coin Of Pity
Subject(s): Pity
They say, that Pity in Love's service dwells,
A porter at the rosy temple's gate.
I missed him going: but it is my fate
To come upon him now beside his wells;
Whereby I know that I Love's temple leave,
And that the purple doors have closed behind.
Poor soul! if, in those early days unkind,
Thy power to sting had been but power to grieve,
We now might with an equal spirit meet,
And not be matched like innocence and vice.
She for the Temple's worship has paid price,
And takes the coin of Pity as a cheat.
She sees through simulation to the bone:
What's best in her impels her to the worst:
Never, she cries, shall Pity soothe Love's thirst,
Or foul hypocrisy for truth atone!
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Other Poems of Interest...
IN PITY AS WE KISS AND LIE by JOHN CIARDI
PITY THIS POOR ANIMAL by LUCILLE CLIFTON
PITY ASCENDING WITH THE FOG by JAMES TATE
EPISTLE IN FORM OF A BALLAD TO HIS FRIENDS by FRANCOIS VILLON
IN AN ACT OF PITY by ROBERT CREELEY
AN EXPOSTULATION by ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE
THE COMPASSIONATE FOOL by NORMAN CAMERON
DIRGE IN WOODS by GEORGE MEREDITH