LOVE'S PLAY AT PUSH-PIN.
by Robert Herrick


LOVE and myself, believe me, on a day
At childish push-pin, for our sport, did play ;
I put, he pushed, and, heedless of my skin,
Love pricked my finger with a golden pin ;
Since which it festers so that I can prove
'Twas but a trick to poison me with love :
Little the wound was, greater was the smart,
The finger bled, but burnt was all my heart.


Push-pin, a game in which pins are pushed
with an endeavour to cross them.
Caravaggio (1573-1610). Amor Victorious.
Caravaggio. Amor Victorious, 1602-3.

Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol I.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 19.
Backto Works of Robert Herrick

Created by Anniina Jokinen on September 27, 1998.
Copyright ©1998 Anniina Jokinen. All Rights Reserved.
Violators will be prosecuted.