There comes an end to summer, <br />To spring showers and hoar rime; <br />His mumming to each mummer <br />Has somewhere end in time, <br />And since life ends and laughter, <br />And leaves fall and tears dry, <br />Who shall call love immortal, <br />When all that is must die? <br /> <br />Nay, sweet, let's leave unspoken <br />The vows the fates gainsay, <br />For all vows made are broken, <br />We love but while we may. <br />Let's kiss when kissing pleases, <br />And part when kisses pall, <br />Perchance, this time to-morrow, <br />We shall not love at all. <br /> <br />You ask my love completest, <br />As strong next year as now, <br />The devil take you, sweetest, <br />Ere I make aught such vow. <br />Life is a masque that changes, <br />A fig for constancy! <br />No love at all were better, <br />Than love which is not free.<br /><br />Ernest Christopher Dowson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-his-mistress-4/
