The Hero, the Girl and the Fool + 

The Girl + 

I rage at my own image in the glass, + 

That’s so unlike myself that when you praise it + 

It is as though you praised another, or even + 

Mocked me with praise of my mere opposite; + 

And when I wake towards morn I dread myself + 

For the heart cries that what deception wins + 

Cruelty must keep; therefore be warned and go + 

If you have seen that image and not the woman. + 

The Hero + 

I have raged at my own strength because you have loved it. + 

The Girl + 

If you are no more strength than I am beauty + 

I had better find a convent and turn nun; + 

A nun at least has all men’s reverence + 

And needs no cruelty. + 

The Hero + 

I have heard one say + 

That men have reverence for their holiness + 

And not themselves. + 

The Girl + 

Say on and say + 

That only God has loved us for ourselves, + 

But what care I that long for a man’s love? + 

The Fool by the Roadside + 

When my days that have + 

From cradle run to grave + 

From grave to cradle run instead; + 

When thoughts that a fool + 

Has wound upon a spool + 

Are but loose thread, are but loose thread. + 

When cradle and spool are past + 

And I mere shade at last + 

Coagulate of stuff + 

Transparent like the wind, + 

I think that I may find + 

A faithful love, a faithful love. + 