Unromantic Love
There is no stillness in this wood.
The quiet of this clearing
Is the denial of my hearing
The sounds I should.
There is no vision in this glade.
This tower of sun revealing
The timbered scaffoldage is stealing
Essence from shade.
Only my love is love’s ideal.
The love I could discover
In these recesses knows no lover,
Is the unreal,
The undefined, unanalysed,
Unabsolute many;
It is antithesis of any,
In none comprised.
Copyright Credit: J. V. Cunningham, “Unromantic Love” from The Exclusions of a Rhyme: Poems and Epigrams. Copyright © 1960 by J. V. Cunningham. Reprinted with the permission of Ohio University Press/Swallow Press, Athens, Ohio.
Source: The Exclusions of a Rhyme: Poems and Epigrams (Ohio University Press, 1960)