We are not near enough to love, <br />I can but pity all your woe; <br />For wealth has lifted me above, <br />And falsehood set you down below. <br /> <br />If you were true, we still might be <br />Brothers in something more than name; <br />And were I poor, your love to me <br />Would make our differing bonds the same. <br /> <br />But golden gates between us stretch, <br />Truth opens her forbidding eyes; <br />You can't forget that I am rich, <br />Nor I that you are telling lies. <br /> <br />Love never comes but at love's call, <br />And pity asks for him in vain; <br />Because I cannot give you all, <br />You give me nothing back again. <br /> <br />And you are right with all your wrong, <br />For less than all is nothing too; <br />May Heaven beggar me ere long, <br />And Truth reveal herself to you!<br /><br />Mary Elizabeth Coleridge<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-insincere-wish-addressed-to-a-beggar/
