Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THIRD BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 11, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: If love loves truth, then women do not love
Last Line: To have fair women false than none at all.
Subject(s): Women; Love - Complaints; Deception


IF love loves truth, then women do not love;
Their passions all are but dissembled shows;
Now kind and free of favour if they prove,
Their kindness straight a tempest over-throws.
Then as a seaman the poor lover fares;
The storm drowns him ere he can drown his cares.

But why accuse I women that deceive?
Blame then the foxes for their subtle wile:
They first from Nature did their craft receive:
It is a woman's nature to beguile.
Yet some, I grant, in loving steadfast grow;
But such by use are made, not Nature, so.

O why had Nature power at once to frame
Deceit and Beauty, traitors both to Love?
O would Deceit had died when Beauty came
With her divineness every heart to move!
Yet do we rather wish, whate'er befall,
To have fair women false than none at all.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net