If I loved you, Phœbe, dear!

“Smiles that thrill from any distance

Shed upon me while I sing!

Please ecstaticise existence;

Love me, oh, thou fairy thing!”

Words like these, outpouring sadly,

You’d perpetually hear,

If I loved you, fondly, madly;—

But I do not, Phœbe, dear!

William Schwenck Gilbert.