An Insincere Wish Addressed to a Beggar

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge 1861 (London) – 1907



We are not near enough to love,
I can but pity all your woe;
For wealth has lifted me above,
And falsehood set you down below.

If you were true, we still might be
Brothers in something more than name;
And were I poor, your love to me
Would make our differing bonds the same.

But golden gates between us stretch,
Truth opens her forbidding eyes;
You can't forget that I am rich,
Nor I that you are telling lies.

Love never comes but at love's call,
And pity asks for him in vain;
Because I cannot give you all,
You give me nothing back again.

And you are right with all your wrong,
For less than all is nothing too;
May Heaven beggar me ere long,
And Truth reveal herself to you!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

41 sec read
104

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD XEXE FXFX GHGH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 667
Words 135
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge was a British novelist and poet who also wrote essays and reviews. more…

All Mary Elizabeth Coleridge poems | Mary Elizabeth Coleridge Books

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