Poems (Coates 1916)/Volume I/Give Me Not Love

by Florence Earle Coates

For other versions of this work, see Give Me Not Love.

GIVE ME NOT LOVE

GIVE me not love that would enthrall
A spirit panting to be free;
But give me love which more than all
Would find it sweet to soar with me!
The bird that close to earth doth cling,
May, darkling, be content to sing,
But full the sunlight shines afar—
And there be heights where eagles are.

Give me not love which hour by hour,
Like to the rose, doth pale its hue;
But love still constant as the flower
That opens to each morn anew;
Not love which, shadowed by the tomb,
A little space doth languid bloom,
But love that draws its deeper breath
From altitudes that know not death.