I Live Behind Forbidding Walls

Music: Sonata K108. By Domenico Scarlatti. Performed by John Sankey.

Alpha List Love Poems Sad Poems About This Site Poems for Free Copyright by Nicholas Gordon

I live behind forbidding walls Made of adamantine words. I could walk out when my heart calls, But, ah! Here flight is just for birds. It was my luck to find my love Just after I had been engaged. I would for love the whole Earth move, Nor care what god might be enraged. Cruel irony! That word I gave, My lover looked to me to keep; For love performs as we behave, Nor do respect and trust come cheap. And so I did what all thought right, Though it was wrong, and honor kept. I stayed an angel in his sight, And ever since in silence wept. Our love remains, though we're apart, Unsullied as a distant star, While I must walk within my heart, Unquiet as the spirits are.