Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907). Punctilio. Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. 1922. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Punctilio

By Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907)


O LET me be in loving nice,
Dainty, fine, and o’er precise,
That I may charm my charmèd dear
As tho’ I felt a secret fear
To lose what never can be lost,—	5
Her faith who still delights me most!
So shall I be more than true,
Ever in my ageing new.
So dull habit shall not be
Wrongly call’d Fidelity.	10