I sought for stately words that might endear me.
My ardent lips, I vowed, should not repeat
What countless lovers swear:—
“Oh, thou art fair!”
I scorned to merely say, “I love thee, Sweet!”
So spent long days with rhetoric and tutor,
In framing sentences I dreamed might suit her.
Oh, how I pondered what she best might hear!
Words should like jewels shine
To make her mine—