A MAID'S DEFENCE, a poem

'TWERE little to renounce what now I hold:
     A treasure that makes poor, a pomp that tires,
     A vernal glow that kindles autumn fires,
A youth that, wasteful in its haste, grows old;
'T were little to relinquish pleasure doled
     In meagre measure to my swift desires,
     To give what nor delights me nor inspires,
In free exchange for Love's all-prizèd gold;

Yet there is something it were pain to yield,
     Which I should part with, Love, in welcoming thee:
     A shy uncertainty that dearer seems
Than e'en thy gifts, my firm defence and shield:
     The dim ideal of my waking dreams,
     The Love unknown, that distant, beckons me!

"A Maid's Defence" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Poems (1898) and Poems (1916) Volume I.