An Old Maid early ere I knew. Gnomic Verses. William Blake. 1908. The Poetical Works

William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

Gnomic Verses

An Old Maid early ere I knew


XIII AN OLD MAID early ere I knew
Aught but the love that on me grew;
And now I’m cover’d o’er and o’er,
And wish that I had been a whore.

O! I cannot, cannot find	5
The undaunted courage of a virgin mind;
For early I in love was crost,
Before my flower of love was lost.