AH, how sweet it is to love!
The opening line of the poem throws down the thematic gauntlet with assertion that will drive the entire narrative structure of the poem. More than just the opening line: it’s the title!
Pains of love be sweeter far Than all other pleasures are.
And now the reader gets to learn what the poet really means when he asks how sweet it is to love. The poem turns out to be far less about the sweetie cutie-pie part of being in love and more about the odd sweetness that comes with the pain of having loved.
Love and Time with reverence use,
Treat them like a parting friend;
The narrator offers some very useful advice. Time is fleeting and should not be wasted without care. The same goes for love which is especially precious because so much time will be spent on it.
Love, like spring-tides full and high,
Swells in every youthful vein;
But each tide does less supply,
Another warning about time; that excitement of love that seems so natural and overflowing in the bloom of youth is not always going to that way. So consider love not just a sweet thing, but so precious that it can slip away like the tide without your even seeing it go.
