Love

The Runaway

by Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1803–1849

From Poems, Posthumous and Collected (1851)

LoveSocial Commentaries

Has no one seen my heart of you?
My heart has run away;
And, if you catch him, ladies, do
Return him me, I pray.
On earth he is no more, I hear,
Upon the land or sea;
For the women found the rogue so queer,
They sent him back to me.
In heaven there is no purchaser
For such strange ends and odds,
Says a Jew, who goes to Jupiter
To buy and sell old gods.
So there's but one place more to search,
That's not genteel to tell,
Where demonesses go to church:—
So Christians fair, farewell.

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A comic lyric of a lover whose heart has run away. Women have sent it back, heaven has no use for it, and so the last place to search is hell. Beddoes in a light, flippant mood.

MLA

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. “The Runaway.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/beddoes/9/.

Chicago

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell. “The Runaway.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/beddoes/9/.

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