Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LOVE'S SECRET SPRINGS, by ALICE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LOVE'S SECRET SPRINGS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: In asking how I came to choose
Last Line: Through time into eternity.
Subject(s): Love


IN asking how I came to choose
This flower that makes my brow to shine,
You seem to say, you did not lose
Your choice, my friend, when I had mine!
And by your lifted brow, exclaim,
"What charms have charmed you? name their name!"

Nay, pardon me -- I cannot say
These are the charms, and those the powers,
And being in a trance one day,
I took her for my flower of flowers.
Love doth not flatter what he gives --
But here, sir, are some negatives.

'T is not the little milk-white hands
That grace whatever work they do;
'T is not the braided silken bands
That shade the eyes of tender blue;
And not the voice so low and sweet
That holds me captive at her feet.

'T is not in frowns, knit up with smiles,
Wherewith she scolds me for my sins,
Nor yet in tricksy ways nor wiles
That I can say true love begins!
Out of such soil it did not grow;
It was, -- and that is all I know.

'T is not her twinkling feet so small,
Nor shoulder glancing from her sleeve,
Nor yet her virtues, one nor all --
Love were not love to ask our leave;
She was not woed, nor was I won --
What draws the dew-drop to the sun?

Pardon me, then, I cannot tell, --
Nor can you hope to understand, --
Why I should love my love so well;
Nor how, upon this border land,
It fell that she should go with me
Through time into eternity.





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