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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  10. The Love Unfeigned

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Geoffrey Chaucer. 1340?–1400

10. The Love Unfeigned

O YONGE fresshe folkes, he or she, 
In which that love up groweth with your age, 
Repeyreth hoom from worldly vanitee, 
And of your herte up-casteth the visage 
To thilke god that after his image         5
Yow made, and thinketh al nis but a fayre 
This world, that passeth sone as floures fayre. 
 
And loveth him, the which that right for love 
Upon a cros, our soules for to beye, 
First starf, and roos, and sit in hevene a-bove;  10
For he nil falsen no wight, dar I seye, 
That wol his herte al hoolly on him leye. 
And sin he best to love is, and most meke, 
What nedeth feyned loves for to seke? 
 
GLOSS:  repeyreth] repair ye.  starf] died.