Poems

Chapter 3: Dear lady when thou frownest

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About This Book

A selection of lyrical poems gathered from several short series, offering quiet meditations on memory, love, and the passing seasons. Many pieces place a reflective speaker beside rivers, hills, and gardens, using precise pastoral detail to evoke mood and recollection. Occasional mythic or devotional images and poems of courtly wooing broaden the emotional range, while elegiac pieces consider loss and aging. The language favors compact, formally patterned lyrics—rhyme, meter, musical diction—to produce concentrated, often wistful impressions.

Dear lady, when thou frownest,

And my true love despisest,

And all thy vows disownest

That sealed my venture wisest;

I think thy pride’s displeasure

Neglects a matchless treasure

Exceeding price and measure.

But when again thou smilest,

And love for love returnest,

And fear with joy beguilest,

And takest truth in earnest;

Then, though I most adore thee,

The sum of my love for thee

Seems poor, scant and unworthy.