TO DELIA: 15 by SAMUEL DANIEL

If that a loyal heart and faith unfeigned,
If a sweet languish with a chaste desire,
If hunger-starven thoughts so long retained,
Fed but with smoke and cherished but with fire;
And if a brow with care's characters painted
Bewrays my love, with broken words half spoken,
To her that sits in my thoughts' temple sainted,
And lays to view my vulture-gnawn heart open;
If I have done due homage to her eyes,
And had my sighs still tending on her name;
If on her love my life and honor lies,
And she, th' unkindest maid, still scorns the same;
Let this suffice, the world yet may see
The fault is hers, though mine the hurt must be.

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