| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | X. Farewell to Love | | By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| | | FAREWELL, sweet Love! yet blame you not my truth: | |
| More fondly ne’er did mother eye her child | |
| Than I your form. Yours were my hopes of youth, | |
| And as you shaped my thoughts, I sighed or smiled. | |
| While most were wooing wealth, or gayly swerving | 5 |
| To pleasure’s secret haunts, and some apart | |
| Stood strong in pride, self-conscious of deserving, | |
| To you I gave my whole, weak, wishing heart. | |
| And when I met the maid that realized | |
| Your fair creations, and had won her kindness, | 10 |
| Say but for her if aught in earth I prized! | |
| Your dream alone I dreamt, and caught your blindness. | |
| O grief!—but farewell, Love! I will go play me | |
| With thoughts that please me less, and less betray me. | | | | |
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