Promise me no promises, So will I not promise you; Keep we both our liberties, Never false and never true: Let us hold the die uncast, Free to come as free to go; For I cannot know your past, And of mine what can you know? You, so warm, may once have been Warmer towards another one; I, so cold, may once have seen Sunlight, once have felt the sun: Who shall show us if it was Thus indeed in time of old? Fades the image from the glass And the fortune is not told. If you promised, you might grieve For lost liberty again; If I promised, I believe I should fret to break the chain: Let us be the friends we were, Nothing more but nothing less; Many thrive on frugal fare Who would perish of excess. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FINIS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TROY PARK: 5. THE CAT by EDITH SITWELL TO A CATY-DID by PHILIP FRENEAU THE LAST LEAF by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES THE SONG OF HIAWATHA: HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 70. THE HILL-SUMMIT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI A DEFIANCE, RETURNING TO THE PLACE OF HIS PAST AMOURS by PHILIP AYRES |