Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO ONE IN A HOSTILE CAMP by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT

Poet Analysis

First Line: HOW DARE I, JULIET, IN LOVE'S KINDNESS BE
Last Line: "THOUGH ALL ABANDON THESE, YET NEVER I."
Subject(s): ROMEO & JULIET; ENEMIES; LOVE;

How dare I, Juliet, in love's kindness be
Your counsellor for these mad days of war,
I, a sworn Montagu, to liberty
Bound by all oaths which men least lightly swear?
How shall I aid you, who enlisted are
In a strange camp, 'neath a strange captaincy,
Nor urge rebellion to that lurid star
Which mocks the captive nations held in fee?
—Nay, bid me not thus falsify my griefs.
I cannot turn my creed nor change my King.
Around me crumble my life's last beliefs,
But in the wreck of faiths to faith I cling.
Lo, this my message is, till Time shall die,
"Though all abandon these, yet never I."



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