What have I gained? A little charity? <br />I never more may dare to fling a stone <br />At any weakness, nor make boast that I <br />A better fence or fortitude had shown; <br />Some learning? I in love's lore have grown wise, <br />Plucked apples of the evil and the good, <br />Made one short trespass into Paradise <br />And known the full taste of forbidden food. <br />But love, if it be gold, has much alloy, <br />And I would gladly buy back ignorance, <br />But for the thought which still is my heart's joy <br />That once your life grew happier in my hands, <br />That in your darkest and most troubled hour <br />I had, like Jesse's son, a soothing power.<br /><br />Wilfrid Scawen Blunt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-woman-s-sonnets-vii/
