“My True Love Hath My Heart and I Have His”
None ever was in love with me but grief.
She wooed my from the day that I was born;
She stole my playthings first, the jealous thief,
And left me there forlorn.
The birds that in my garden would have sung,
She scared away with her unending moan;
She slew my lovers too when I was young,
And left me there alone.
Grief, I have cursed thee often–now at last
To hate thy name I am no longer free;
Caught in thy bony arms and prisoned fast,
I love no love but thee.
The title “My True Love Hath My Heart and I Have His” refers to a line from Sir Philip Sidney’s long work Arcadia, an influential romance from the sixteenth century.
