Madam
I hope you'll think it's true
I deeply am in love with you,
When I assure you t' other day,
As I was musing on my way,
At thought of you I tumbled down
Directly in a deadly swoon:
And though 'tis true I'm something better,
Yet I can hardly spell my letter:
And as the latter you may view,
I hope you'll think the former true.
You need not wonder at my flame,
For you are not a mortal dame:
I saw you dropping from the skies;
And let dull idiots swear your eyes
With love their glowing breast inspire,

Oh! weep with me the changing scene,
Torn from thy arms, devoured with spleen.
Instead of those dear eyes, I look
Upon the fire, or else a book:
But oh! how dull must either be
To eyes that have been studying thee!
Unless the poet does express
Something that strikes my tenderness,
I throw the leaves neglected by,
And in my chair supinely lie;
Or to the pen and ink I haste,
And there a world of paper waste.
All I can write, though love is here,
Does much unlike my soul appear.
Angry, the scrawling side I turn,

While vulgar souls their vulgar love pursue,
And in the common way themselves undo;
Impairing health and fame, and risking life,
To be a mistress or, what's worse, a wife:
We, whom a nicer taste has raised above
The dangerous follies of such slavish love,
Despise the sex, and in our selves we find
Pleasures for their gross senses too refined.
Let brutish men, made by our weakness vain,
Boast of the easy conquest they obtain;
Let the poor loving wretch do all she can,
And all won't please th' ungrateful tyrant, Man;

Enslav'd by Passions, swell'd with Pride,
In Love with one whom all deride;
A Carcass well, yet Mind in Pain,
Reduc'd to beg, but beg in vain;
To live reserv'd, and free from Blame,
And yet incur an evil Fame:
Let this! this, be the wretched Fate,
Of Rosalinda, whom I hate.

Love lives beyond
The tomb—the earth—which fades like dew
I love the fond
The faithfull & the true

Love lives in sleep
The happiness of healthy dreams
Eve's dews may weep
But love delightfull seems.

Tis seen in flowers
& in the evens pearly dew
On earths green hours
& in the heavens eternal blue.

Tis heard in spring
When light & sunbeams warm & kind
On angels wing
Bring love & music to the mind.

& where is voice
So young & beautifully sweet
As natures choice

I WILL accept thy will to do and be,
Thy hatred and intolerance of sin,
Thy will at least to love, that burns within
And thirsteth after Me:
So will I render fruitful, blessing still,
The germs and small beginnings in thy heart,
Because thy will cleaves to the better part. —
Alas, I cannot will.

Dost not thou will, poor soul? Yet I receive
The inner unseen longings of the soul,
I guide them turning towards Me; I control
And charm hearts till they grieve:
If thou desire, it yet shall come to pass,

It is a fearful trust, the trust of love.
In fear, not hope, should woman's heart receive
A guest so terrible. Ah! never more
Will the young spirit know its joyous hours
Of quiet hopes and innocent delights;
Its childhood is departed.

And yet it is a wasted heart:
It is a wasted mind
That seeks not in the inner world
Its happiness to find;

For happiness is like the bird
That broods above its nest,
And finds beneath its folded wings,
Life's dearest, and its best.

A little space is all that hope
Or love can ever take;
The wider that the circle spreads,
The sooner it will break.

The sun was setting o'er the sea,
A beautiful and summer sun;
Crimson and bright, as if not night,
But rather day had just begun:
That lighted sky, that lighted sea,
They spoke of Love and Hope to me.

I thought how Love, I thought how Hope,
O'er the horizon of my heart
Had poured their light like yonder sun;
Like yon sun, only to depart:
Alas! that ever suns should set,
Or Hope grow cold, or Love forget!

Weep for the love that fate forbids;
Yet loves, unhoping, on,
Though every light that once illumed
Its early path be gone.

Weep for the love that must resign
The soul's enchanted dream,
And float, like some neglected bark,
Adown life's lonely stream!

Weep for the love that cannot change;
Like some unholy spell,
It hangs upon the life that loved
So vainly and so well.

Weep for the weary heart condemned
To one long, lonely sigh,
Whose lot has been in this cold world,
To dream, despair, and die!