for broken lovers

(a sonnet)

With charming smile, shining eye, dark curl,

And false affections toying with your heart-

You guarded like her oyster, she your pearl.

Untrue, she fell to rip the love apart.

So sharp an arrow splitting it in two-

Hard, stinging tears fill oceans on her face.

Unknown to her your sorrow at adieu,

By faith forgotten in dark and starry place;

Unknown to you, in covert of the night,

How rivers dry and dam from bank to bank,

Impenetrable to foul lovers’ might

Cruel Fortune’s chains beneath the waves are sunk,

But stronger from soft ashes does she rise:

An eagle soaring higher in clear skies.