The poem
Farewell, ungrateful traitor! Farewell, my perjur'd swain! Let never injur'd woman Believe a man again. The pleasure of possessing Surpasses all expressing, But 'tis too short a blessing, And love too long a pain.
'Tis easy to deceive us In pity of your pain, But when we love, you leave us To rail at you in vain. Before we have descried it, There is no joy beside it, But she that once has tried it Will never love again.
The passion you pretended Was only to obtain, But once the charm is ended, The charmer you disdain. Your love by ours we measure Till we have lost our treasure, But dying is a pleasure When living is a pain.
The poem is most likely about a girl, hurt because the person she had loved has left her. She is so hurt that she vows never to believe a man again for men, as she puts it delicately, only aim at possessing and that their kind of love only ends in hurt. The girl considers her case one shared by women in general and issues a general statement that girls are powerless against the irresponsibility displayed by men. She…
Read the whole commentThe poem is most likely about a girl, hurt because the person she had loved has left her. She is so hurt that she vows never to believe a man again for men, as she puts it delicately, only aim at possessing and that their kind of love only ends in hurt.
The girl considers her case one shared by women in general and issues a general statement that girls are powerless against the irresponsibility displayed by men.
She lashes out at the one who hurt her saying that his love was never real, but only pretend and aimed at getting her treasured feelings. Once she had surrendered that there was no longer use of keeping up appearances, so the lover leaves, leaving behind a girl in pain. She wishes then to be dead instead of living with the memories of hurt.