Poem by Rupert Chawner Brooke

He Wonders Whether to Praise or to Blame Her

I have peace to weigh your worth, now all is over,
   But if to praise or blame you, cannot say.
For, who decries the loved, decries the lover;
   Yet what man lauds the thing he's thrown away?

Be you, in truth, this dull, slight, cloudy naught,
   The more fool I, so great a fool to adore;
But if you're that high goddess once I thought,
   The more your godhead is, I lose the more.

Dear fool, pity the fool who thought you clever!
   Dear wisdom, do not mock the fool that missed you!
Most fair, -- the blind has lost your face for ever!
   Most foul, -- how could I see you while I kissed you?

So... the poor love of fools and blind I've proved you,
For, foul or lovely, 'twas a fool that loved you.

1. The Great Lover
2. The Dance
3. Song (The way of love was thus)
4. Fragment on Painters
5. The One Before the Last

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