Explore "Captivity" by Gilbert Parker on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Nay, lady, though I love thee, I make pause / Before thy question, and know naught to say; / Art cannot teach me to define the way, / Love led me, nor e'en register Love's cause.
It can but blazon in this verse of mine / What love does for me; what from Love it gains; / What is its quickening; but it refrains / From divination where thy merits shine.
Canst thou, indeed, not tell what wrought in thee / To bring me as a captive to thy feet?
Canst thou not say, "Twas this that made decree
Of conquest; here thy soul with mine did meet?"
Or is it that both stand amazed before / The shrine where thou hast blessed and I adore?