As you came from the holy land <br />Of Walsingham, <br />Met you not with my true love <br />By the way as you came? <br />'How shall I know your true love, <br />That have met many one, <br />I went to the holy land, <br />That have come, that have gone?' <br />She is neither white, nor brown, <br />But as the heavens fair; <br />There is none hath a form so divine <br />In the earth, or the air. <br />'Such a one did I meet, good sir, <br />Such an angelic face, <br />Who like a queen, like a nymph, did appear <br />By her gait, by her grace.' <br />She hath left me here all alone, <br />All alone, as unknown, <br />Who sometimes did me lead with herself, <br />And me loved as her own. <br />'What's the cause that she leaves you alone, <br />And a new way doth take, <br />Who loved you once as her own, <br />And her joy did you make?' <br />I have lov'd her all my youth; <br />But now old, as you see, <br />Love likes not the falling fruit <br />From the withered tree. <br />Know that Love is a careless child, <br />And forgets promise past; <br />He is blind, he is deaf when he list, <br />And in faith never fast. <br />His desire is a dureless content, <br />And a trustless joy: <br />He is won with a world of despair, <br />And is lost with a toy. <br />Of womenkind such indeed is the love, <br />Or the word love abus'd, <br />Under which many childish desires <br />And conceits are excus'd. <br />But true love is a durable fire, <br />In the mind ever burning, <br />Never sick, never old, never dead, <br />From itself never turning.<br /><br />Sir Walter Raleigh<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/as-you-came-from-the-holy-land-3/
