Midnight, mind your own affairs! I resent
Your nightly footfalls in the clock, sneaking
Up with an accusatory intent.
Daytime vows I've made but am not keeping,
Without your moonlight leers I will repent,
So why remind me my wasteful weeping
In which vow keeping days are spent? Relent!
Still the hour of breaking vows comes creeping.
Unrequited lovers with vows crown days,
But action has no throne in timid hearts.
Men woo folly and waste in other ways
Time sworn to Aphrodite and her arts.
But midnight's toll punishes them this slight
With those loneliest lovers, thought, and night.
