Christina Rossetti

Dec 5, 1830 - Dec 29, 1894

 

No Thank You, John

by Christina Rossetti

I never said I loved you, John:
Why will you teaze me day by day,
And wax a weariness to think upon
With always do and pray?

You know I never loved you, John;
No fault of mine made me your toast:
Why will you haunt me with a face as wan
As shows an hour-old ghost?

I dare say Meg or Moll would take
Pity upon you, if you'd ask:
And pray don't remain single for my sake
Who can't perform that task.

I have no heart? -- Perhaps I have not;
But then you're mad to take offence
That I don't give you what I have not got:
Use your own common sense.

Let bygones be bygones:
Don't call me false, who owed not to be true
I'd rather answer No to fifty Johns
Than answer Yes to you.

Let's mar our pleasant days no more,
Song-birds of passage, days of youth:
Catch at to-day, forget the days before:
I'll wink at your untruth.

Let us strike hands as hearty friends;
No more, no less; and friendship's good:
Only don't keep in view ulterior ends,
And points not understood

In open treaty. Rise above
Quibbles and shuffling off and on:
Here's friendship for you if you like; but love, --
No, thank you, John.

Source:

Goblin Market and Other Poems
Copyright 1865
Macmillan And Co.London and Cambridge