Love! She is a woman, and she can love All men save one, and with all men may dwell Save he alone who fears the mailed glove, The snorting charger and the battle smell; The coward, who betrays love with a kiss, Whose very glance turns sweetness into gall, Who lives a life of wicked avarice Which love espews,—she'll none of him at all. It is not poverty's grim self alone Which drives love out from the poor cottage door, But fear of poverty which has been known To wreck our hopes and lives forevermore, And often has that fear been proved to be Absurd and groundless yet too late in life To call back love and its sweet purity Which once acknowledged was by man and wife. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COMING DOWN TO THE DESERT AT LORDBURG, N.M. by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE HILL ABOVE THE MINE by MALCOLM COWLEY MAGDALEN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON RETROSPECTION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON POSSUM SONG (A WARNING) by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON BALLROOM DARK by CLARENCE MAJOR |