Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

VIII. Wedded Love

The Fire of Love

Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset (1638–1706)

THE FIRE of love in youthful blood,

Like what is kindled in brushwood,

But for a moment burns;

Yet in that moment makes a mighty noise;

It crackles, and to vapor turns,

And soon itself destroys.

But when crept into agèd veins

It slowly burns, and then long remains,

And with a silent heat,

Like fire in logs, it glows and warms ’em long,

And though the name be not so great,

Yet is the heat as strong.