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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONG by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE

First Line: GIVE ME BACK MY HEART, FAIR CHILD
Last Line: MAKES A YOUNG HEART MELANCHOLY.

GIVE me back my heart, fair child;
To you as yet 'twere worth but little,
Half beguiler, half beguiled,
Be you warned, your own is brittle:
I know it by your reddening cheeks,
I know it by those two black streaks
Arching up your pearly brows
In a momentary laughter,
Stretched in long and dark repose
With a sigh the moment after.

"Hid it! dropt it on the moors!
"Lost it and you cannot find it" --
My own heart I want, not yours:
You have bound and must unbind it.
Set it free then, from your net,
We will love, sweet -- but not yet!
Fling it from you; we are strong,
Love is trouble, love is folly;
Love, that makes an old heart young,
Makes a young heart melancholy.



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