Eleanor Farjeon

Sonnets. 14. Now I have love again and life again

Now I have love again and life again
By either hand, and cannot join their palms;
For me they never will be one but twain,
And I from each accept the barest alms.
Life’s dole I scatter publicly, love’s lies
Unspent, unspent for ever in my heart--
Poor heart, poor beggar of bleak charities
From stores wherein it owns no proper part.

Each knows me for his almsman in distress
And brings his mercies to my famished door,
But love asks not who doth my body dress,
Nor life who stoops to clothe a heart so poor.
Why do ye always come in singleness?
Meet in me once, and I will want no more.