Reference > William Shakespeare > The Oxford Shakespeare > Poems
  PREVIOUS NEXT  
CONTENTS      BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William Shakespeare (1564–1616).  The Oxford Shakespeare: Poems.  1914.

The Passionate Pilgrim, V.

“If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?”

IF love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? 
O! never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow’d: 
Though to myself forsworn, to thee I ’ll constant prove; 
Those thoughts, to me like oaks, to thee like osiers bow’d. 
Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes,         5
Where all those pleasures live that art can comprehend. 
If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; 
Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend; 
All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder; 
Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire:  10
Thine eye Jove’s lightning seems, thy voice his dreadful thunder, 
Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire, 
  Celestial as thou art, O! do not love that wrong, 
  To sing heaven’s praise with such an earthly tongue. 


CONTENTS      BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD


  PREVIOUS NEXT  
 
Loading
Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.
Shakespeare · Bible · Saints · Anatomy · Harvard Classics · Lit. History · Quotations · Poetry
© 1993–2013 Bartleby.com · [Top 150]