Sonnet I Said I Splendidly Loved You Its Not True

I said I splendidly loved you; it's not true.

Such long swift tides stir not a land-locked sea.

On gods or fools the high risk falls — on you —The clean clear bitter-sweet that's not for me.

Love soars from earth to ecstasies unwist.

Love is flung Lucifer-like from Heaven to Hell.

But — there are wanderers in the middle mist,

Who cry for shadows, clutch, and cannot

Whether they love at all, or, loving, whom:

An old song's lady, a fool in fancy dress,

Or phantoms, or their own face on the gloom;

For love of Love, or from heart's loneliness.

Pleasure's not theirs, nor pain.  They doubt, and

And  do not love at all.  And Of these am I.