Unrequited Love Poems

Table of Contents

1. Unrequited Love

   by Hulda Fetzer

   
   

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   I never can love him, though he worships me,
   And though he would fall at my shrine;
   I never can love him, so what is the use
   To torture this poor heart of mine.
   

   So I must refuse him; but let it be gentle,
   And kindly I'll bid him to go,
   And seek him another who is more worthy,
   For I am unloving, I know.
   

   My love is too trifling when measured with his,
   My heart, it wants to be free;
   And so I will bid him good-by for the last time,
   And tell him to forget one so fickle as me.
   

2. A Broken Chain

   by Annie Armstrong

   
   

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   My friend, I've searched my heart, as you have prayed me,
   And find all calm and cold its depths within;
   My fate with thine can never be united,
   And yet—this might have been.
   

   A year ago, the words within this letter
   Had made the rushing tides of joy begin
   To flow through every vein—and now—I wonder
   That e'er it could have been.
   

   I chide you not, nor do I wish to blame you,
   Because you cared another heart to win;
   I even thank you that you broke your fetters,
   And that this has not been.
   

   I cannot tell in what mysterious manner
   In peace subsided all the heart's wild din;
   I only know this cannot now be, ever,
   Although it might have been.
   

3. Embers

   by Floyd Meredith

   
   

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   Slowly burns the fire, its hot wrath spent,
   While over the gray ashes creeps a chill;
   For all the room is silent since you went,
   And still;
   

   I could not hope to keep you for alway,
   Love's source was drained, it could not stand the test;
   And yet, like threads of flame, my memories sway,
   Rise up and will not rest.
   

   'Twas such a trifle that aroused distrust,
   And took your hands from mine, biding me go,
   Yet all the while I knelt here in the dust,
   And loved you so;
   

   But oh, tonight, just touch my lips, and lean
   Your head upon my breast, and let us be
   As we once were ere doubting came between
   The Me and Thee;
   

   The embers dully glow, and through the grate
   The hot coals drop into a cool retreat;
   Be mine again! Fain would I laugh at Fate . . .
   And kiss your feet.
   

4. Love Me At Last

   by Alice Corbin Henderson

   
   

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   Love me at last, or if you will not,
   Leave me;
   Hard words could never, as these half-words,
   Grieve me:
   Love me at last—or leave me.
   

   Love me at last, or let the last word uttered
   Be but your own;
   Love me, or leave me—as a cloud, a vapor,
   Or a bird flown.
   Love me at last—I am but sliding water
   Over a stone.
   

5. Bedouin Love Song

   by Bayard Taylor

   
   

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   From the Desert I come to thee
   On a stallion shod with fire;
   And the winds are left behind
   In the speed of my desire.
   Under thy window I stand,
   And the midnight hears my cry:
   I love thee, I love but thee,
   With a love that shall not die
   Till the sun grows cold,
   And the stars are old,
   And the leaves of the Judgment
   Book unfold!
   

   Look from thy window and see
   My passion and my pain;
   I lie on the sands below,
   And I faint in thy disdain.
   Let the night-winds touch thy brow
   With the heat of my burnings sigh,
   And melt thee to hear the vow
   Of a love that shall not die
   Till the sun grows cold,
   And the stars are old,
   And the leaves of the Judgment
   Book unfold!
   

   My steps are nightly driven,
   By the fever in my breast,
   To hear from thy lattice breathed
   The word that shall give me rest.
   Open the door of thy heart,
   And open thy chamber door,
   And my kisses shall teach thy lips
   The love that shall fade no more
   Till the sun grows cold,
   And the stars are old,
   And the leaves of the Judgment
   Book unfold!
   

6. Longing

   by Paul Laurence Dunbar

   
   

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   If you could sit with me beside the sea to-day,
   And whisper with me sweetest dreamings o’er and o’er;
   I think I should not find the clouds so dim and gray,
   And not so loud the waves complaining at the shore.
   

   If you could sit with me upon the shore to-day,
   And hold my hand in yours as in the days of old,
   I think I should not mind the chill baptismal spray,
   Nor find my hand and heart and all the world so cold.
   

   If you could walk with me upon the strand to-day,
   And tell me that my longing love had won your own,
   I think all my sad thoughts would then be put away,
   And I could give back laughter for the Ocean’s moan!
   

7. The Broken Heart

   by Eliza Wolcott

   
   

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   Can I forget thee, Walter!—no,
   For whom my first fond sigh arose;
   Then how canst thou forget me so?
   'Tis this that fills my cup with wo.
   

   Yes, Walter, I would still be thine,
   And wish that we no more might sever;
   This thought 's too dear, 'tis too divine,
   My Walter's heart is constant ever.
   

   But I will love, till death's cold sod
   Shall wrap me underneath the gloom;
   My woes I'll spread before my God,
   And there my prayers for thee shall bloom.
   

   Canst thou forget me, Walter, say?
   Will Margaret's love forgotten live?
   O, ask the wave's unsteady way,
   Canst thou a better moral give.
   

   Though happiness is short, 'twas ours—
   Too dear for me, too fond to last;
   When thou wert mine and I was yours—
   But must I say 'tis gone, 'tis past!
   

   But O, when days with me are o'er,
   And silent in the grave I lie,
   O then, when Margaret is no more,
   Weep o'er her tomb, breathe there one sigh.
   

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