dots-menu
×

Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Rivalry in Love

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

V. Cautions and Complaints

Rivalry in Love

William Walsh (1663–1708)

OF all the torments, all the cares,

With which our lives are curst;

Of all the plagues a lover bears,

Sure rivals are the worst!

By partners in each other kind,

Afflictions easier grow;

In love alone we hate to find

Companions of our woe.

Sylvia, for all the pangs you see

Are laboring in my breast,

I beg not you would favor me;—

Would you but slight the rest!

How great soe’er your rigors are,

With them alone I ’ll cope;

I can endure my own despair,

But not another’s hope.