Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LOVE, by ANNA BUNSTON DE BARY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LOVE, by                    
First Line: Why wilt thou so laboriously excuse
Last Line: Since thee I love, and not thy love of me.
Subject(s): Love; Poetry & Poets


"Its absolute incapacity of offence."
—WALTER PATER, in Gaston de Latour.

WHY wilt thou so laboriously excuse
Thy long and often absences from me?
Or when did I thy wanderings accuse
Or plant a hedge about thy liberty?
I must have waited all thy faith to prove
If I would love thee for thy faithfulness;
I loved because it was my will to love
And my love stands in my will's steadfastness.
Thou sayest thou hast won a second youth,
Right well I know it, thou hast stolen mine,
But never shalt thou filch away my truth,
Which stays my own although all else be thine:

Then knock no more, who canst not lose the key,
Since thee I love, and not thy love of me.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net