Why should I sing in verse, why should I frame These sad neglected notes for her dear sake? Why should I offer up unto her name The sweetest sacrifice my youth can make? Why should I strive to make her live forever, That never deigns to give me joy to live? Why should my'afflicted muse so much endeavor Such honor unto cruelty to give? If her defects have purchased her this fame, What should her virtues do, her smiles, her love? If this her worst, how should her best inflame? What passions would her milder favors move? Favors, I think, would sense quite overcome, And that makes happy lovers ever dumb. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TRULY GREAT by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES A NEW BIRTH by EDMUND JOHN ARMSTRONG RIDDLE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD SONG ON THE WATER (1) by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES NORTHERN CALIFORNIA NIGHT (STRAITS OF CARQUINEZ) by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE WOUNDED VULTURE by ANNE CHARLOTTE LYNCH BOTTA MR. MERRY'S LAMENT FOR LONG TOM by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |