23
Love is Best.
"You ask me for my love," she said; "your voice is full of passion,
You woo me as a man should woo, in bold and earnest fashion.
Not all the vows that I have heard of love and deep devotion
Have stirred my heart to feel the least faint answering emotion;
And I have said unto myself, 'No man has power to win me,
Yet now I feel as if you touched some strange, new feeling in me,
I cannot send you from my side with my accustomed coldness,
I seem to fear—yet find a charm in your insistent boldness.
And yet—Why should I yield my heart unto your passion's pleading?
I hold it as a royal gift, some high requital needing.
In days of old, such men as you fought for their lady's favour,
And of their trophies, these, the best—their fame and honour—gave her.
You woo me as a man should woo, in bold and earnest fashion.
Not all the vows that I have heard of love and deep devotion
Have stirred my heart to feel the least faint answering emotion;
And I have said unto myself, 'No man has power to win me,
Yet now I feel as if you touched some strange, new feeling in me,
I cannot send you from my side with my accustomed coldness,
I seem to fear—yet find a charm in your insistent boldness.
And yet—Why should I yield my heart unto your passion's pleading?
I hold it as a royal gift, some high requital needing.
In days of old, such men as you fought for their lady's favour,
And of their trophies, these, the best—their fame and honour—gave her.
