Y dear and only love, take heed
How thou thyself expose
By letting longing lovers feed
Upon such looks as those.
I’ll marble-wall thee round about,
And build without a door;
But if thy heart do once break out,
I’ll never love thee more.

Let not their oaths, by volleys shot,
Make any breach at all,
Nor smoothness of their language plot
A way to scale the wall;
No balls of wildfire love consume
The shrine which I adore;
For if such smoke about it fume,
I’ll never love thee more.

Then if by fraud or by consent
To ruin thou shouldst come,
I’ll sound no trouble as of wont,
Nor march by beat of drum,
But fold my arms, like ensigns, up,
Thy falsehood to deplore,
And after such a bitter cup
I’ll never love thee more.

HERE’S TO THE MAIDEN OF BASHFUL FIFTEEN.