50. Wherein He Entreats Love to Kindle in Laura's Bosom -
WHEREIN HE ENTREATS LOVE TO KINDLE IN LAURA'S BOSOM THE FIRE WHICH CEASELESSLY CONSUMES HIM
Alas! how little, in those first fierce days
When Love probed deep, was my heart known to me,
Where by degrees he gained the mastery
Of my whole life in many subtle ways:
I never thought that, with his yeas and nays,
This heart, hammered by time so terribly,
Could show such faintness, such infirmity,
And to its folly its poor pride abase.
From now on, all defence will come too late
Save this, such as it is, to prove my fate,
If to these mortal pleadings Love incline.
Not now my prayer — never could such be mine —
That with more pity he regard my yearning,
But that she taste the bitterness, the burning.
Alas! how little, in those first fierce days
When Love probed deep, was my heart known to me,
Where by degrees he gained the mastery
Of my whole life in many subtle ways:
I never thought that, with his yeas and nays,
This heart, hammered by time so terribly,
Could show such faintness, such infirmity,
And to its folly its poor pride abase.
From now on, all defence will come too late
Save this, such as it is, to prove my fate,
If to these mortal pleadings Love incline.
Not now my prayer — never could such be mine —
That with more pity he regard my yearning,
But that she taste the bitterness, the burning.
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