What Is Love?

By Elizabeth Philip

(English contemporary. Quoted from “Women the World Over.”)

What is Love, that all the world
Should talk so much about it?
What is Love, that neither you
Nor I can do without it?

What is Love that it should be
As changeful as the weather?
Is it joy or is it pain
Or is it both together?

Love’s a tyrant and a slave,
A torment and a treasure.
Having it, you know no peace,
Lacking it, no pleasure.

Would I shun it if I could?
Faith, I almost doubt it.
No, I’d rather bear its sting,
Than live my life without it.