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LOVE'S SPITE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You take a town you cannot keep
Last Line: A sweet impossibility!


YOU take a town you cannot keep;
And, forced in turn to fly,
O'er ruins you have made shall leap
Your deadliest enemy!
Her love is yours -- and be it so --
But can you keep it? No, no, no!

Upon her brow we gaz'd with awe,
And lov'd, and wish'd to love, in vain
But when the snow begins to thaw
We shun with scorn the miry plain.
Women with grace may yield: but she
Appear'd some Virgin Deity.

Bright was her soul as Dian's crest
Whitening on Vesta's fane its sheen:
Cold look'd she as the waveless breast
Of some stone Dian at thirteen.
Men lov'd: but hope they deem'd to be
A sweet Impossibility!





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