Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A DEPOSITION FROM LOVE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I was foretold your rebel sex
Last Line: Only deposed kings can know.
Subject(s): Love


I was foretold your rebel sex
Nor love, nor pity knew,
And with what scorn you use to vex
Poor hearts that humbly sue;
Yet I believed, to crown our pain,
Could we the fortress win,
The happy lover sure should gain
A paradise within.
I thought love's plagues, like dragons, sate,
Only to fright us at the gate.

But I did enter and enjoy
What happy lovers prove,
For I could kiss, and sport and toy,
And taste those sweets of love,
Which, if they had a lasting state,
Or if in Celia's breast
The force of love might not abate,
Jove were too mean a guest.
But now her breach of faith far more
Afflicts, than did her scorn before.

Hard fate! to have been once possessed
As victor of a heart,
Achieved with labour and unrest,
And then forced to depart;
If the stout foe will not resign,
When I besiege a town,
I lose but what was never mine,
But he that is cast down
From enjoyed beauty, feels a woe
Only deposed kings can know.






Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net