Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue Hate—
Hate of my sin, grounded on Sinful Loving.²
I Hate you from the gulf and hollow of my soul—
Which opens out to what, except for you, had been
My Heaven—and is, instead, a place to Curse by!³
Hate is an emotional aristocracy fallen on
Hard times—it’s like eating Nothing off a solid
Gold plate—to hate is a crude vintage festivity.⁴
Hatred has silent fangs, formed to Stone.⁵
By being Contemptible we set men’s
Minds to the Tune of Contempt.⁶
Men have Contempt for themselves—
Contempt is the order of the day.⁷
The Last sight they’ll ever see is
A pair of Hateful Eyes.⁸
I do not hate you: I want
To help you stop hating.⁹
I have no time to hate—
Because the Grave would hinder me—
And life is not so ample
I could finish Enmity.¹⁰
¹ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, paraphrased in Middlemarch
² William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXLII
³ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
⁴ Hera Lindsay Bird
⁵ Jason Carrey, America’s Pastime
⁶ George Eliot, Middlemarch
⁷ Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto
⁸ Regina Spektor, Laughing With
⁹ Refaat Alareer, I Am You
¹⁰ Emily Dickinson, I Had No Time to Hate