Poem by Richard Watson Gilder

The New Day. Part 2. 4. Written on a Fly-Leaf of “Shakespeare's Sonnets”

When shall true love be love without alloy—
⁠     Shine free at last from sinful circumstance!
     ⁠When shall the canker of unheavenly chance
     ⁠Eat not the bud of that most heavenly joy!
When shall true love meet love not as a coy
     ⁠Retreating light that leads a deathful dance,
     ⁠But as a firm fixt fire that doth enhance
     ⁠The beauty of all beauty! Will the employ
Of poets ever be too well to show
     ⁠That mightiest love with sharpest pain doth writhe;
     ⁠That underneath the fair, caressing glove
Hides evermore the iron hand; and tho'
     ⁠Love's flower alone is good, if we would prove
     ⁠Its perfect bloom, our breath slays like a scythe!

1. The New Day. Part 4. 2. The Mirror
2. The Celestial Passion. Part 2. 3. A Madonna of Fra Lippo Lippi
3. The New Day. Part 3. 5. “I Will Be Brave for Thee”
4. The New Day. Part 4. 16. “Love Is Not Bond to Any Man”
5. The New Day. Part 2. 1. Words without Song

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