Three sang of love together: one with lips Crimson, with cheeks and bosom in a glow, Flushed to the yellow hair and finger tips; And one there sang who soft and smooth as snow Bloomed like a tinted hyacinth at a show; And one was blue with famine after love, Who like a harpstring snapped rang harsh and low The burden of what those were singing of. One shamed herself in love; one temperately Grew gross in soulless love, a sluggish wife; One famished died for love. Thus two of three Took death for love and won him after strife; One droned in sweetness like a fattened bee: All on the threshold, yet all short of life. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...O SLEEP, MY BABE! by SARA COLERIDGE THE HAPPY LIFE by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS ODE TO THE MAGUIRE by EOCHADH O'HUSSEY THE FLIGHT OF THE GODDESS by CELIA THAXTER ROBERT BURNS by WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1567-1640) A RONDEAU OF REGRETS by HENRI BAUDE I'M SADDEST WHEN I SING by THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY |