Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Quotes
Short Stories
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Resources
Syllable Counter
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 18.191.33.207
From Email:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
I 'But where do you go?' said the lady, while both sat under the yew, And her eyes were alive in their depth, as the kraken beneath the sea-blue. II 'Because I fear you,' he answered;--'because you are far too fair, And able to strangle my soul in a mesh of your golfd-coloured hair.' III 'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason! Such knots are quickly undone, And too much beauty, I reckon, is nothing but too much sun.' IV 'Yet farewell so,' he answered; --'the sunstroke's fatal at times. I value your husband, Lord Walter, whose gallop rings still from the limes. V 'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason. You smell a rose through a fence: If two should smell it what matter? who grumbles, and where's the pretense? VI 'But I,' he replied, 'have promised another, when love was free, To love her alone, alone, who alone from afar loves me.' VII 'Why, that,' she said, 'is no reason. Love's always free I am told. Will you vow to be safe from the headache on Tuesday, and think it will hold? VIII 'But you,' he replied, 'have a daughter, a young child, who was laid In your lap to be pure; so I leave you: the angels would make me afraid." IX 'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason. The angels keep out of the way; And Dora, the child, observes nothing, although you should please me and stay.' X At which he rose up in his anger,--'Why now, you no longer are fair! Why, now, you no longer are fatal, but ugly and hateful, I swear.' XI At which she laughed out in her scorn: 'These men! Oh these men overnice, Who are shocked if a colour not virtuous is frankly put on by a vice.' XII Her eyes blazed upon him--'And you! You bring us your vices so near That we smell them! You think in our presence a thought 'twould defame us to hear! XIII 'What reason had you, and what right,--I appel to your soul from my life,-- To find me so fair as a woman? Why, sir, I am pure, and a wife. XIV 'Is the day-star too fair up above you? It burns you not. Dare you imply I brushed you more close than the star does, when Walter had set me as high? XV 'If a man finds a woman too fair, he means simply adapted too much To use unlawful and fatal. The praise! --shall I thank you for such? XVI 'Too fair?--not unless you misuse us! and surely if, once in a while, You attain to it, straightaway you call us no longer too fair, but too vile. XVII 'A moment,--I pray your attention!--I have a poor word in my head I must utter, though womanly custom would set it down better unsaid. XVIII 'You grew, sir, pale to impertinence, once when I showed you a ring. You kissed my fan when I dropped it. No matter! I've broken the thing. XIX 'You did me the honour, perhaps, to be moved at my side now and then In the senses--a vice, I have heard, which is common to beasts and some men. XX 'Love's a virtue for heroes!--as white as the snow on high hills, And immortal as every great soul is that struggles, endures, and fulfils. XXI 'I love my Walter profoundly,--you, Maude, though you faltered a week, For the sake of . . . what is it--an eyebrow? or, less still, a mole on the cheek? XXII 'And since, when all's said, you're too noble to stoop to the frivolous cant About crimes irresistable, virtues that swindle, betray and supplant. XXIII 'I determined to prove to yourself that, whate'er you might dream or avow By illusion, you wanted precisely no more of me than you have now. XXIV 'There! Look me full in the face!--in the face. Understand, if you can, That the eyes of such women as I am are clean as the palm of a man. XXV 'Drop his hand, you insult him. Avoid us for fear we should cost you a scar-- You take us for harlots, I tell you, and not for the women we are. XXVI 'You wronged me: but then I considered . . . there's Walter! And so at the end I vowed that he should not be mulcted, by me, in the hand of a friend. XXVII 'Have I hurt you indeed? We are quits then. Nay, friend of my Walter, be mine! Come, Dora, my darling, my angel, and help me to ask him to dine.'
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required