To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars
Richard Lovelace · 1649
Public domain
From The Golden Treasury, selected by Francis Turner Palgrave. Richard Lovelace. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shalt adore;
I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.