_Love, Not Duty._

Thought may well be ever ranging, And opinion ever changing, Task-work be, though ill begun, Dealt with by experience better; By the law and by the letter Duty done is duty done: Do it, Time is on the wing!

Hearts, ’tis quite another thing, Must or once for all be given, Or must not at all be given; Hearts, ’tis quite another thing!

To bestow the soul away Is an idle duty-play!— Why, to trust a life-long bliss To caprices of a day, Scarce were more depraved than this!

Men and maidens, see you mind it; Show of love, where’er you find it, Look if duty lurk behind it! Duty-fancies, urging on Whither love had never gone!

Loving—if the answering breast Seem not to be thus possessed, Still in hoping have a care; If it do, beware, beware! But if in yourself you find it, Above all things—mind it, mind it!

1841