Love

Tell me, my Heart if this be Love

by George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton 1709–1773

From The Oxford Book of English Verse (1900)

Love

When Delia on the plain appears,
Awed by a thousand tender fears
I would approach, but dare not move:
Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

Whene’er she speaks, my ravish’d ear
No other voice than hers can hear,
No other wit but hers approve:
Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

If she some other youth commend,
Though I was once his fondest friend,
His instant enemy I prove:
Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

When she is absent, I no more
Delight in all that pleased before--
The clearest spring, or shadiest grove:
Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

When fond of power, of beauty vain,
Her nets she spread for every swain,
I strove to hate, but vainly strove:
Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

MLA

Lyttelton, George, 1st Baron Lyttelton. “Tell me, my Heart if this be Love.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lyttelton_g/1/.

Chicago

Lyttelton, George, 1st Baron Lyttelton. “Tell me, my Heart if this be Love.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lyttelton_g/1/.

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