Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/"No, thank you, John"

by Christina Georgina Rossetti

"NO, THANK YOU, JOHN."

I NEVER said I loved you, John:
 Why will you tease me day by day,
And wax a weariness to think upon
  With always "do" and "pray"?

You know I never loved you, John;
 No fault of mine made me your toast:
Why will you haunt me with a face as wan
  As shows an hour-old ghost?

I dare say Meg or Moll would take
 Pity upon you, if you'd ask:
And pray don't remain single for my sake
  Who can't perform that task.

I have no heart?—Perhaps I have not;
 But then you're mad to take offence
That I don't give you what I have not got:
  Use your own common sense.

Let bygones be bygones:
 Don't call me false, who owed not to be true:
I'd rather answer "No," to fifty Johns
  Than answer "Yes," to you.

Let's mar our pleasant days no more,
 Song-birds of passage, days of youth:
Catch at to-day, forget the days before:
  I'll wink at your untruth.

Let us strike hands as hearty friends;
 No more, no less; and friendship's good:
Only don't keep in view ulterior ends,
  And points not understood

In open treaty. Rise above
 Quibbles and shuffling off and on:
Here's friendship for you if you like; but love,—
  No, thank you, John.