Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

II. Love’s Nature

Three Loves

Lucy Hamilton Jones Hooper (1835–1893)

THERE were three maidens who loved a king;

They sat together beside the sea;

One cried, “I love him, and I would die

If but for one day he might love me!”

The second whispered, “And I would die

To gladden his life, or make him great.”

The third one spoke not, but gazed afar

With dreamy eyes that were sad as Fate.

The king he loved the first for a day,

The second his life with fond love blest;

And yet the woman who never spoke

Was the one of the three who loved him best.