| How delicious is the winning |
| Of a kiss at love’s beginning, |
| When two mutual hearts are sighing |
For the knot there’s no untying!
|
| Yet remember, ’midst our wooing, |
| Love has bliss, but Love has ruing; |
| Other smiles may make you fickle, |
Tears for other charms may trickle.
|
| Love he comes, and Love he tarries, |
| Just as fate or fancy carries; |
| Longest stays, when sorest chidden; |
Laughs and flies, when press’d and bidden.
|
| Bind the sea to slumber stilly, |
| Bind its odour to the lily, |
| Bind the aspen ne’er to quiver, |
Then bind Love to last for ever.
|
| Love’s a fire that need renewal |
| Of fresh beauty for its fuel: |
| Love’s wing moults when caged and captured, |
Only free, he soars enraptured.
|
| Can you keep the bee from ranging |
| Or the ringdove’s neck from changing? |
| No! nor fetter’d Love from dying |
In the knot there’s no untying.
|
| Thomas Campbell |
Classic Poems |
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[ Hohenlinden ] [ Freedom and Love ] [ Battle of the Baltic ] [ Lord Ullin's Daughter ] [ Ye Mariners of England ] [ To the Evening Star ] [ The River of Life ] |
