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Home  »  The Book of Elizabethan Verse  »  Anonymous

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

False Love

Anonymous

WHEN Love on time and measure makes his ground,—

Time that must end, though Love can never die,—

’Tis Love betwixt a shadow and a sound,

A love not in the heart but in the eye;

A love that ebbs and flows, now up, now down,

A morning’s favour, and an evening’s frown.

Sweet looks show love, yet they are but as beams;

Fair words seem true, yet they are but as wind;

Eyes shed their tears, yet are but outward streams;

Sighs paint a shadow in the falsest mind.

Looks, words, tears, sighs, show love when love they leave,

False hearts can weep, sigh, swear, and yet deceive.