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!