which owes the other most?

                            Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda. – Dante 

                            Ogni altra cosa, ogni pensier va fore, 

                             E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore. – Petrarca 

I loved you first: but afterwards your love,

         Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song 

As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove. 

         Which owes the other most? my love was long, 

         And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong; 

I loved and guessed at you, you construed me 

And loved me for what might or might not be – 

         Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong. 

For verily love knows not ‘mine’ or ‘thine'; 

         With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done, 

                 For one is both and both are one in love: 

Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine;’ 

                 Both have the strength and both the length thereof, 

         Both of us, of the love which makes us one.

[Christina Rossetti {1830-1894} 'I loved you first: but afterwards your love'. This poem is in the public domain.]