DELAY! Alas, there cannot be To Love a greater tyranny: Those cruel beauties that have slain Their votaries by their disdain, Or studied torments, sharp and witty, Will be recorded for their pity, And after-ages be misled To think them kind, when this is spread. Of deaths the speediest is despair, Delays the slowest tortures are; Thy cruelty at once destroys, But Expectation starves my joys. Time and Delay may bring me past The power of Love to cure, at last; And shouldst thou wish to ease my pain, Thy pity might be lent in vain; Or if thou hast decreed, that I Must fall beneath thy cruelty, O kill me soon! Thou wilt express More mercy, ev'n in showing less. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO THE DRIVING CLOUD by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW AFTER THE BURIAL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SPORTSMEN IN PARADISE by T. P. CAMERON WILSON PARADISE by CHARLES GRANGER BLANDEN DRAMATIC IDYLS: 2ND SERIES. EPILOGUE by ROBERT BROWNING GEORGE SAND SAYING by ETHEL TONRY CARPENTER THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN: 7. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA by GEOFFREY CHAUCER |