I Know You False, I Know You Vain

Amelia Alderson Opie

1769 to 1853

Poem Image

I know you false, I know you vain,
Yet still I cannot break my chain:
Though with those lips so sweetly smiling,
Those eyes so bright and so beguiling,
On every youth by turns you smile,
And every youth by turns beguile,
Yet still enchant and still deceive me,
Do all things, fatal fair,…. but leave me.
Still let me in those speaking eyes
Trace all your feelings as they rise;
Still from those lips in crimson swelling,
Which seem of soft delights the dwelling,
Catch tones of sweetness, which the soul
In fetters ever new control;
Nor let my starts of passion grieve thee,….
Though death to stay, 't were death to leave thee.

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