Nay but you, who do not Love Her
The speaker shows a beloved woman's tresses to people who do not love her and asks whether anything on earth surpasses her. Asking those who spend their lives praising to judge calmly, the speaker says that intense love makes praise impossible.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 145 words
First lines
Nay but you, who do not love her, / Is she not pure gold, my mistress? / Holds earth aught -- speak truth -- above her? / Aught like this tress, see, and this tress, / And this last fairest tress of all, / So fair, see, ere I let it fall?
Because you spend your lives in praising; / To praise, you search the wide world over: / Then why not witness, calmly gazing, / If earth holds aught -- speak truth -- above her? / Above this tress, and this, I touch / But cannot praise, I love so much!
What this Textopian page supports
Nay but you, who do not Love Her is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 145 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
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- Work identity for Nay but you, who do not Love Her by Robert Browning
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Love Poetry — The speaker admires a beloved woman's hair and declares that loving her so much prevents praise.
- Lyric Poetry — Two rhymed stanzas express the speaker's devotion through direct questions and repeated references to the woman's tresses.
Tags
romantic love · beauty · hair · praise