Two loves I have, of comfort and despair, Which, like two spirits, do suggest me still; The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman colored ill. 5 To win me soon to hell, my female evil Tempteth my better angel from my side, And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride. And whether that my angel be turned fiend 10 Suspect I may, but not directly tell; But being both from me both to each friend, I guess one angel in another’s hell. Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
I have two loves, one of comfort and one of despair,
Which, like two spirits, tempt me:
They better angel is a very beautiful man,
And the worse spirit a evil-colored woman.
To seduce me to hell, my female evil
Tempts my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to become a devil,
Seducing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether my angel is turned into monster
I can only suspect, but not directly know;
But since both are absent from me and friends with each other,
I guess that the one angel is in another's hell.
Yet I will never know this, and must live in doubt,
Until my bad angel burns my good one.
Suzy Kim is a graduate student studying Victorian literature at Brown University. She studied English and Psychology at University of Pennsylvania, and some of her creative work can be found in the upcoming volume of The Graphic Canon: Tales of Crime and Mystery Vol. 1. She is from Seoul, and currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.