XL by Elizabeth Barrett Browning — Past Poetry archive

Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours! I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth. I have heard love talked in my early youth, And since, not so long back but that the flowers Then gathered, smell still. Mussulmans and Giaours Throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth For any weeping. Polypheme’s white tooth Slips on the nut, if after frequent showers, The shell is over-smooth; and not so much Will turn the thing called love, aside to hate, Or else to oblivion. But thou art not such A lover, my Beloved! thou canst wait Through sorrow and sickness, to bring souls to touch, And think it soon when others cry “Too late.”