She Says She Loves Me Dearly

by Frances Sargent Locke Osgood

A Song.

She says her heart is in her kiss --
She says she loves me dearly;
Why meet I not her tenderness
As fondly, as sincerely?

Ah! once I trusted all I met,
With warm and artless truth;
And once my words were from my soul,
But that was in my youth.

And trust betray'd, and vows forgot,
And wrong return'd for kindness,
Have chill'd my heart, and changed my lot,
And cured my blissful blindness.

No longer tender, guileless, meek,
Confiding as the dove,
Too oft I think before I speak,
And doubt before I love!