Sir Walter Ralegh. The Silent Lover.

Sir Walter Ralegh

The Silent Lover

i

PASSIONS are liken'd best to floods and streams :
The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb ;
So, when affection yields discourse, it seems
    The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
They that are rich in words, in words discover
That they are poor in that which makes a lover.

ii
WRONG not, sweet empress of my heart,
    The merit of true passion,
With thinking that he feels no smart,
    That sues for no compassion.

Silence in love bewrays more woe
    Than words, though ne'er so witty :
A beggar that is dumb, you know,
    May challenge double pity.

Then wrong not, dearest to my heart,
    My true, though secret passion ;
He smarteth most that hides his smart,
    And sues for no compassion.

Source:
The Oxford Book of English Verse.
Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1919. 102-103.

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