<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=472550" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Dilemma</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now, by the blessed Paphian queen,<br>Who heaves the breast of sweet sixteen;<br>By every name I cut on bark<br>Before my morning star grew dark;<br>By Hymen’s torch, by Cupid’s dart,<br>By all that thrills the beating heart;<br>The bright black eye, the melting blue,—­<br>I cannot choose between the two.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I had a vision in my dreams;—­<br>I saw a row of twenty beams;<br>From every beam a rope was hung,<br>In every rope a lover swung;<br>I asked the hue of every eye<br>That bade each luckless lover die;<br>Ten shadowy lips said, heavenly blue,<br>And ten accused the darker hue.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I asked a matron which she deemed<br>With fairest light of beauty beamed;<br>She answered, some thought both were fair,—­<br>Give her blue eyes and golden hair. <br>I might have liked her judgment well,<br>But, as she spoke, she rung the bell,<br>And all her girls, nor small nor few,<br>Came marching in,—­their eyes were blue.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I asked a maiden; back she flung<br>The locks that round her forehead hung,<br>And turned her eye, a glorious one,<br>Bright as a diamond in the sun,<br>On me, until beneath its rays<br>I felt as if my hair would blaze;<br>She liked all eyes but eyes of green;<br>She looked at me; what could she mean?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah! many lids Love lurks between,<br>Nor heeds the coloring of his screen;<br>And when his random arrows fly,<br>The victim falls, but knows not why. <br>Gaze not upon his shield of jet,<br>The shaft upon the string is set;<br>Look not beneath his azure veil,<br>Though every limb were cased in mail.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Well, both might make a martyr break<br>The chain that bound him to the stake;<br>And both, with but a single ray,<br>Can melt our very hearts away;<br>And both, when balanced, hardly seem<br>To stir the scales, or rock the beam;<br>But that is dearest, all the while,<br>That wears for us the sweetest smile.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Oliver+Wendell+Holmes">Oliver Wendell Holmes</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=472550" data-title="The Dilemma de Oliver Wendell Holmes" data-description="Now, by the blessed Paphian queen, Who heaves the breast of sweet sixteen; By every name I cut on bark Before my morning star grew dark; By Hymen’s torch, by Cupid’s dart, By all that thrills the beating heart; The bright black eye, ..."></div> </div> </div>

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