"Its absolute incapacity of offence." —WALTER PATER, in @3Gaston de Latour.@1 WHY wilt thou so laboriously excuse Thy long and often absences from me? Or when did I thy wanderings accuse Or plant a hedge about thy liberty? I must have waited all thy faith to prove If I would love thee for thy faithfulness; I loved because it was my will to love And my love stands in my will's steadfastness. Thou sayest thou hast won a second youth, Right well I know it, thou hast stolen mine, But never shalt thou filch away my truth, Which stays my own although all else be thine: Then knock no more, who canst not lose the key, Since thee I love, and not thy love of me. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VERSES SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY ALEXANDER SELKIRK by WILLIAM COWPER LOFT AT NIGHT by VIRGINIA ABEL HOMAGE TO QUINTUS SEPTIMIUS FLORENTIS CHRISTIANUS (2) by ANYTE PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 54. AL-KAWI by EDWIN ARNOLD TO THE SKYLARK by BERNARD BARTON |