| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | VI. Love | | By Thomas Hood (1799–1845) |
| | | LOVE, dearest Lady, such as I would speak, | |
| Lives not within the humor of the eye;— | |
| Not being but an outward phantasy, | |
| That skims the surface of a tinted cheek. | |
| Else it would wane with beauty, and grow weak,— | 5 |
| As if the rose made summer,—and so lie | |
| Amongst the perishable things that die, | |
| Unlike the love which I would give and seek, | |
| Whose health is of no hue to feel decay | |
| With cheeks’ decay, that have a rosy prime. | 10 |
| Love is its own great loveliness alway, | |
| And takes new lustre from the touch of time; | |
| Its bough owns no December and no May, | |
| But bears its blossom into Winter’s clime. | | | | |
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