Page:Sir Walter Raleigh by Thoreau, Henry David,.djvu/97

 She hath left me here all alone,

All alone as unknown,

Who sometimes did me lead with herself,

And me loved as her own:

What 's the cause that she leaves you alone,

And a new way doth take:

Who loved you once as her own

And her joy did you make?

I have loved her all my youth,

But now, old as you see,

Love likes not the falling fruit

From the withered tree:

Know that Love is a careless child

And forgets promise past,

He is blind, he is deaf, when he list,

And in faith never fast:

His desire is a dureless content,

And a trustless joy;

He is won with a world of despair,

And is lost with a toy.

Of women-kind such indeed is the love,

Or the word love abused;

Under which, many childish desires

And conceits are excused:

But true love is a durable fire

In the mind ever burning;

Never sick, never old, never dead,

From itself never turning.