AMOUR OBLIGE <br />I could forgive you, dearest, all the folly <br />Your heart has dreamed. Alas, as we grow old, <br />We need more vigorous cures for melancholy, <br />A stronger nutriment for hearts grown cold. <br />We need in face of weakness to be bold. <br />We need our folly to keep fate at bay. <br />Oh, we need madness in the manifold <br />Doubts and despairs which herald our decay. <br />I could forgive you all and more than all. <br />Yet, dearest, though for us fate waves his hand <br />And we accept it as the common lot <br />To meet no more at this life's festival, <br />It were unseemly you should take your stand, <br />Now my heart's citadel is laid in siege, <br />In open field with those who love me not. <br />Love has a rank which surely should oblige.<br /><br />Wilfrid Scawen Blunt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-love-sonnets-of-proteus-part-iii-gods-and-false-gods-lxxix/
