Before me floats an image, man or shade, / Shade more than man, more image than a shade.

God guard me from those thoughts men think In the mind alone.

If soul my look and body touch, Which is the more blest?

It is one of the great troubles of life that we cannot have any unmixed emotions. There is always something in our enemy that we like, and something in our sweetheart that we dislike.

I think it better that in times like these a poet's mouth be silent, for in truth we have no gift to set a statesman right.

The years like great black oxen tread the world, and God, the herdsman goads them on behind, and I am broken by their passing feet.

Does the imagination dwell the most Upon a woman won or a woman lost?