Classic Poem

Not with the thoughts of others do I seek
To wake your interest and hold it fast;
Not with a fancy from the buried past
Some honeyed fragment of the ancient Greek,
Have I essayed in halting form to speak,
But I have all such cunning outward cast
And trusted to the Saxon words at last
To light your eyes—put color in your cheek.

The simplest speech is truest; when I say
“I love you!” in those three words I have said
All that I know, or compass, or can feel.
Let those who will, adopt the tortuous way
The while their thought in speech obscure is led
Round, round and round, a wheel within a wheel.