Could I belie, 2nd Sonnet Originally 2002 Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[AMETHYST]

I haven't written in a long while. With lack of something new and fresh to offer you, I dusted off this older Sonnet, my 2nd Sonnet infact and I am open to any suggestions and thoughts for improvement. It is a Reply Sonnet to Samuel Butler's "She was too kind, she woo'd so persistently..."

Could I Belie?

Would I have been so wise to love without
a heart to break, a voice to vow and dreams
of blissful nights-to offer less? It seems
a waste of time to entertain this doubt.
Would I be more adored by you, if I
had used you as a fool -- had played a game
and masked my care in deeper shades of shame?
To hide behind feigned words implies a lie;
perhaps this voice that says "I will be true,"
or speaks in written verse, enkindled dear,
by hands that stop to wipe away a tear,
could never spark a kindred flame in you?
Should I decide to hide a better me,
or speak of love and hope to set it free.

[AMETHYST]

Hi John,

Thank you for stopping in ... Although I don't think reading the poem this responds to actually will make a difference on the poem at hand (only because there isn't anything in Samuel Butlers Poem that my response poem relies on... However I would love to take this opportunity to share his Sonnet with everyone. It is a most profound and thought provoking poem...

i

She Was Too Kind, Wooed Too Persistently

By Samuel Butler



She was too kind, wooed too persistently,
Wrote moving letters to me day by day;
The more she wrote, the more unmoved was I,
The more she gave, the less could I repay.
Therefore I grieve, not that I was not loved,
But that, being loved, I could not love again.
I liked, but like and love are far removed;
Hard though I tried to love I tried in vain.
For she was plain and lame and fat and short,
Forty and over-kind. Hence it befell
That though I loved her in a certain sort,
Yet did I love too wisely but not well.
Ah! had she been more beauteous or less kind
She might have found me of another mind.

When I first read this, I actually saw myself and how I acted toward another long ago, and was placed in a state of contemplation - Should I have cared so much or played hard to get ... anyway my response was the result!

Hugs, Liz