A red paper heart sits in the loop of a dark iron padlock beside a brass chain on a slate tile.

Original artwork, not a still

John Dryden

Fool, not to know that love endures no tie,

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker calls someone foolish for failing to see that love cannot survive being bound. Love, on this view, resists obligation and constraint, and any attempt to fasten it in place misunderstands its nature. The tone is scolding and certain, delivered as a hard truth.

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