Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WOOED AND WON, by PHOEBE CARY



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WOOED AND WON, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The maiden has listened to loving words
Last Line: "for my hope, with its sweet uncertainty!"
Subject(s): Courtship


THE maiden has listened to loving words,
She has seen a heart like a flower unclose;
And yet she would almost hide its truth,
And shut the leaves of the blushing rose.

For the spell of enchantment is broken now,
And all the future is seen so clear,
That she longs for the very longing gone,
For the restless pleasure of hope and fear.

She stands so close to her painting now
That its smallest failings are revealed, --
Ah, that beautiful picture, that looked so sweet,
By the misty distance half concealed!

"Alas," she says, "can it then be true
That all is vanity, as they preach, --
That the good is in striving after the good,
And the best is the thing we never reach?

"Are not the sweetest words we can speak:
'It is mine, and I hold my treasure fast?'
And the saddest wrung from the human heart:
'It might have been, but the time is past?'

"I do not know, and I will not say,
But yet of a truth it seems to me,
I would give my certain knowledge back
For my hope, with its sweet uncertainty!"





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