My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming; I love not less, though less the show appear: That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming The owner's tongue doth publish every where. Our love was new and then but in the spring When I was wont to greet it with my lays, As Philomel in summer's front doth sing And stops her pipe in growth of riper days: Not that the summer is less pleasant now Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night, But that wild music burthens every bough And sweets grown common lose their dear delight. Therefore like her I sometime hold my tongue, Because I would not dull you with my song. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO CARMEN SYLVA (QUEEN OF ROUMANIA) by EMMA LAZARUS THE TURNSTILE by WILLIAM BARNES OLNEY HYMNS: 9. THE CONTRITE HEART by WILLIAM COWPER THE MYSTERIOUS CAT by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY IDYLLS OF THE KING: LANCELOT AND ELAINE by ALFRED TENNYSON PARLIAMENT OF WOMEN: PRAXAGORA REHEARSES by ARISTOPHANES |