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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

IV. Love Vindicating Its Rejecter

Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902)

(Entitled by the Author, “Troilus and Cressida”)

HAD I been worthy of the love you gave,

That love withdrawn had left me sad, but strong:

My heart had been as silent as my tongue;

My bed had been unfevered as my grave:

I had not striven for what I could not save:

Back, back to heaven my great hopes I had flung:

To have much suffered, having done no wrong,

Had seemed to me that noble part the brave

Account it ever. What this hour I am

Affirms the unworthiness that in me lurked:

Some sapping poison through my substance worked,

Some sin not trivial, though it lacked a name,

Which ratifies the deed that you have done

With plain approval. Other plea seek none.