<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=519014" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Imperfect Lover</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I never asked you to be perfect—did I?— <br>Though often I’ve called you sweet, in the invasion <br>Of mastering love. I never prayed that you <br>Might stand, unsoiled, angelic and inhuman, <br>Pointing the way toward Sainthood like a sign-post. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Oh yes, I know the way to heaven was easy. <br>We found the little kingdom of our passion <br>That all can share who walk the road of lovers. <br>In wild and secret happiness we stumbled; <br>And gods and demons clamoured in our senses.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But I’ve grown thoughtful now. And you have lost <br>Your early-morning freshness of surprise <br>At being so utterly mine: you’ve learned to fear <br>The gloomy, stricken places in my soul, <br>And the occasional ghosts that haunt my gaze. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">You made me glad; and I can still return <br>To you, the haven of my lonely pride: <br>But I am sworn to murder those illusions <br>That blossom from desire with desperate beauty: <br>And there shall be no falsehood in our failure;<br>Since, if we loved like beasts, the thing is done, <br>And I’ll not hide it, though our heaven be hell. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">You dream long liturgies of our devotion. <br>Yet, in my heart, I dread our love’s destruction. <br>But, should you grow to hate me, I would ask<br>No mercy of your mood: I’d have you stand <br>And look me in the eyes, and laugh, and smite me. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then I should know, at least, that truth endured, <br>Though love had died of wounds. And you could leave me <br>Unvanquished in my atmosphere of devils.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Siegfried+Sassoon">Siegfried Sassoon</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=519014" data-title="The Imperfect Lover de Siegfried Sassoon" data-description="I never asked you to be perfect—did I?— Though often I’ve called you sweet, in the invasion Of mastering love. I never prayed that you Might stand, unsoiled, angelic and inhuman, Pointing the way toward Sainthood like a sign-post. Oh y..."></div> </div> </div>

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