Poems of Experience/Fiction and Fact

122297Poems of Experience — Fiction and FactElla Wheeler Wilcox

In books I read, how men have lived and died,
   With hopeless love deep in their bosoms hidden.
While she for whom they long in secret sighed,
   Went on her way, nor guessed this flame unbidden.

In real life, I never chanced to see
   The woman who was loved, and did not know it,
And observation proves this fact to me:
   No man can love a woman and not show it.