Lean down and see your little face Reflected in the forest pool, Tall foxgloves grow about the place, Forget-me-nots grow green and cool.
Look deep and see the naiad rise To meet the sunshine of your eyes. Lean down and see how you are fair, How gold your hair, your mouth how red;
See the leaves dance about your hair The wind has left unfilleted. What naiad of them can compare With you for good and dear and fair?
Ah! look no more — the water stirs, The naiad weeps your face to see, Your beauty is more rare than hers, And you are more beloved than she.
Fly! fly, before she steals the charms The pool has trusted to her arms. Ah, turn your pretty eyes away! You would not have me love again?
Love’ s pleasure does not live a day, Immortal is Love’ s pain, And I am tired of pain. I have loved once — aye, once or twice;
The pleasure died, the pain lives here; I will not look in your sweet eyes, I will not love you, Dear, Lest you should grow too dear.
For I am weary and afraid. Have I not seen why life was fair, And known how good a world God made, How sweet the blossoms were,
How dear the green fields were? And I have found how life was gray, A mist-hung road, a quest in vain, Until once more Love smiled my way
And fooled me once again, And taught me grief again. Now I will gather no more grief; I only ask to see the sky,
The budding flower, the budding leaf, And put old dreamings by, The dreams Love tortures by. For, being wise, I love no more;
You, if you will, snare with those eyes Some fool who never loved before, And teach him to be wise! For why should you be wise?
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