No Cold Approach
written in 1792
No cold approach, no altered mien, Just what would make suspicion start; No pause the dire extremes between, He made me blest - and broke my heart.
love
loss
rhymed verse
somber
No Cold Approach - meaning Summary
Sudden Intimacy, Sudden Loss
This short lyric describes a brief, intense relationship that begins with simple honesty and ends in sudden betrayal. The speaker praises the lack of artifice—"no cold approach, no altered mien"—then notes there was no drawn-out tension: the lover quickly made the speaker happy and then abruptly caused pain. The poem compresses a complete emotional arc into four lines, trading narrative detail for a stark contrast between initial trust and final heartbreak. It centers on the shock of disappointment when genuine feeling is overturned without warning.
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