Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Amy's Cruelty lyrics

Fair Amy of the terraced house
Assist me to discover
Why you who would not hurt a mouse
Can torture so your lover

You give your coffee to the cat
You stroke the dog for coming
And all your face grows kinder at
The little brown bee’s humming

But when he haunts your door the town
Marks coming and marks going
You seem to have stitched your eyelids down
To that long piece of sewing!

You never give a look, not you
Nor drop him a "Good morning, "
To keep his long day warm and blue
So fretted by your scorning

She shook her head "The mouse and bee
For crumb or flower will linger:
The dog is happy at my knee
The cat purrs at my finger

"But he to him, the least thing given
Means great things at a distance
He wants my world, my sun, my heaven
Soul, body, whole existence

"They say love gives as well as takes
But, I’m a simple maiden
My mother’s first smile when she wakes
I still have smiled and prayed in

"I only know my mother’s love
Which gives all and asks nothing
And this new loving sets the groove
Too much the way of loathing

"Unless he gives me all in change
I forfeit all things by him:
The risk is terrible and strange
I tremble, doubt, deny him

"He’s sweetest friend or hardest foe
Best angel or worst devil
I either hate or love him so
I can’t be merely civil!

"You trust a woman who puts forth
Her blossoms thick as summer’s?
You think she dreams what love is worth
Who casts it to new-comers?

"Such love’s a cowslip ball to fling
A moment’s pretty pastime
I give all me, if anything
The first time and the last time

"Dear neighbour of the trellised house
A man should murmur never
Though treated worse than dog and mouse
Till doated on for ever!"