Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE QUARREL, by ELIZABETH TREFUSIS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE QUARREL, by                    
First Line: What have I done? In what have I offended?
Last Line: Gods! Gods! How great a criminal am I!
Subject(s): Love; Love - Unrequited


I
What have I done? in what have I offended?
That thus with alter'd looks, and cold regards,
My doom is fixt, ere yet my trial's ended,
And scorn the truest tenderness rewards!
I ask not for thy love, or would obtain thee;
Honour forbids that blessing should be mine:
Yet I so dote, that I would die to gain thee,
Were we both free, and poverty was thine!

II
If it be sin in secret to adore thee,
Hide latent passion under friendship's guise;
If it be sin thus humbly to implore thee,
And read love's volume in those speaking eyes;
If it be sin these agonies to prove,
T'exhale my very being in a sigh;
If it be sin to love—as angels love!
Gods! gods! how great a criminal am I!





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