Love

Pity Me Not!

by Helen Hay Whitney 1875–1944

From Some Verses (1898)

Love

Cruel and fair! within thy hollowed hand
My heart is lying as a little rose,
So faint and faded, scarce could one suppose
It might look in thine eyes and understand
The song they sing unto a weary land,
Making it radiant, yet because I dare,
To love thee, being weak, lose not thine air
Of passive distance, fateful and most grand.

Pity me not, nor turn away awhile
Till absence's cloud has caught my passion up.
Ah, be not kind! for love's sake, be not kind!
Grant me the tragic deepness of the cup,
And when thine eyes have flashed and made me blind,
Kill me beneath the shadow of thy smile.

MLA

Whitney, Helen Hay. “Pity Me Not!” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/whitney_hh/6/.

Chicago

Whitney, Helen Hay. “Pity Me Not!” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/whitney_hh/6/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

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