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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  On the Contrarieties of Love

C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

On the Contrarieties of Love

By Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695)

(Second Sonnet)

ONE loves me though his homage I disdain;

And one for whom I languish mocks my smile.

To double torment thus doth pride beguile,

And make me loathe and love at once in vain;

On him who honors casting wanton stain,

And hazarding to be esteemèd vile

By wooing where I am not sought, the while

I waste the patience of a gentler swain.

So must I fear despite to my good fame;

For here with vanity, with conscience there,

My blushing cheeks betray my needless shame:

’Tis I am guilty towards this guiltless pair.

For shame! to court a light-love’s woeful name,

And leave an earnest lover to despair.