I was foretold your rebel sex Nor love, nor pity knew, And with what scorn you use to vex Poor hearts that humbly sue; Yet I believed, to crown our pain, Could we the fortress win, The happy lover sure should gain A paradise within. I thought love's plagues, like dragons, sate, Only to fright us at the gate. But I did enter and enjoy What happy lovers prove, For I could kiss, and sport and toy, And taste those sweets of love, Which, if they had a lasting state, Or if in Celia's breast The force of love might not abate, Jove were too mean a guest. But now her breach of faith far more Afflicts, than did her scorn before. Hard fate! to have been once possessed As victor of a heart, Achieved with labour and unrest, And then forced to depart; If the stout foe will not resign, When I besiege a town, I lose but what was never mine, But he that is cast down From enjoyed beauty, feels a woe Only deposed kings can know. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CLOISTER by ISAAC ROSENBERG LOVE IN BLACK AND WHITE by KAREN SWENSON TO A CAPTIOUS CRITIC by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE CANDLE INDOORS by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS OUR COUNTRY by JULIA WARD HOWE SONNET (3) by CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY EMIGRATION by LISA DOMINGUEZ ABRAHAM |