IF Love it be not, what is this I feel? If it be Love, what Love is, fain I'd know? If good, why the effects severe and ill? If bad, why do its torments please me so? If willingly I burn, should I complain? If 'gainst my will, what helps it to lament? Oh living Death! oh most delightful pain! How comes all this, if I do not consent? If I consent, 'tis madness then to grieve; Amidst these storms, in a weak boat I'm tost Upon a dangerous sea, without relief, No help from Reason, but in Error lost. Which way in this distraction shall I turn, That freeze in Summer, and in Winter burn? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 88. A DAY IN SUSSEX by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT EPILOGUE TO DRAMATIS PERSONAE by ROBERT BROWNING THE TASK: BOOK 4. THE WINTER EVENING by WILLIAM COWPER THE LITANY: 10. THE MARTYRS by JOHN DONNE TO STATECRAFT EMBALMED by MARIANNE MOORE THE BATTLE AUTUMN OF 1862 by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |