Poem by William Cosmo Monkhouse

Song

WHO calls me bold because I won my love,  
   And did not pine,  
And waste my life with secret pain, but strove  
   To make him mine?  
 
I us’d no arts; ’t was Nature’s self that taught
   My eye to speak,  
And bid the burning blush to paint unsought  
   My flashing cheek;  
 
That made my voice to tremble when I bid  
   My love “Goodby,”
So weak that every other sound was hid,  
   Except a sigh.  
 
Oh, was it wrong to use the truth I knew,  
   That hearts are mov’d,  
And spring warm-struck with life and love anew,
   By being lov’d?  
 
One night there came a tear, that, big and loth,  
   Stole ’neath my brow.  
’T was thus I won my heart’s own heart, and both  
   Are happy now.

1. On a Young Poetess’s Grave
2. De Libris
3. A Dead March
4. The Wake of Tim O'Hara
5. Limerick: There Was a Young Lady of Wilts

John Clare Song ("One gloomy eve I roam’d about")

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