Mutual Passion

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Title:     Mutual Passion
Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge [More Titles by Coleridge]

I love, and he loves me again,
Yet dare I not tell who:
For if the nymphs should know my swain,
I fear they'd love him too.
_Yet while my joy's unknown,
Its rosy buds are but half-blown:
What no one with me shares, seems scarce my own._

I'll tell, that if they be not glad,
They yet may envy me:
But then if I grow jealous mad,
And of them pitied be,
_'Twould vex me worse than_ scorn!
And yet it cannot be forborn,
Unless my heart would _like_ my _thoughts_ be torn.

He is, if they can find him, fair
And fresh, and fragrant too;
_As after rain the summer air_,
And looks as lilies do,
That are this morning blown!
Yet, yet I doubt, he is not known,
_Yet, yet I fear to have him fully shewn_.

But he hath eyes so _large_, and bright.
_Which none can see, and_ doubt
_That_ Love _might thence_ his torches light
Tho' Hate had put them out!
But then to _raise_ my fears,
_His voice--what maid so ever_ hears
Will be my rival, tho' she have but ears.

I'll tell no more! _yet I love him_,
And ho loves me; _yet so,
That never one low wish did dim
Our love's pure light, I know--
In each so free from_ blame,
_That both of us would gain new_ fame,
If love's _strong fears_ would let me tell his name!

 

First published in _The Courier_, September 21, 1811; included in the supplementary sheet to _Sibylline Leaves_; reprinted in _Essays on His Own Times_, iii. 995, 996, and in the Appendix to _P. W._, 1863. It was first pointed out by W. E. Henley that 'Mutual Passion' is an adaptation of 'A Nymph's Passion', No. V of Ben Jonson's _Underwoods_.

[The end]
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem: Mutual Passion

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