I What have I done? in what have I offended? That thus with alter'd looks, and cold regards, My doom is fixt, ere yet my trial's ended, And scorn the truest tenderness rewards! I ask not for thy love, or would obtain thee; Honour forbids that blessing should be mine: Yet I so dote, that I would die to gain thee, Were we both free, and poverty was thine! II If it be sin in secret to adore thee, Hide latent passion under friendship's guise; If it be sin thus humbly to implore thee, And read love's volume in those speaking eyes; If it be sin these agonies to prove, T'exhale my very being in a sigh; If it be sin to love—as angels love! Gods! gods! how great a criminal am I! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...POOR DEVIL! by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET REVIEW by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON VIOLET'S WAFERS, SENT ME WHEN I WAS ILL by SIDNEY LANIER SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: EDITH CONANT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |