Chaucer is smitten and, much like legions of romantic poets before and after him, employs a hyperbolic lexicon to express it. However, beneath the language we now find so typical of love poetry, there is a sweetness and a degree of worship and consequent submission, which is unusual.

The woman shines like a "crystal," with cheeks like "Ruby." Her beauty is a shrine with scope enough to encircle the world. By now, such imagery has been used so many times as to appear hackneyed. Modern readers glaze over at the mention of precious jewels to relate the beauty of a loved one, but within its own literary context—i.e., a much sparser one—these comparisons might have ignited passionate flames in those who read or heard them.

Moreover, he goes further than admiring her in a purely aesthetic manner. Seeing her dance is "ointment unto my wound"; it is not merely her physical body he finds attractive, but the way she moves. Granted, this is still a shallow estimation of a person's worth, but it goes further towards appreciating her for the person she is—her attitude, energy and passion—than merely admiring her physique and symmetry.

The closing line of the second stanza shifts the mood somewhat, but only by giving us new information. She will do him "no dalliance," meaning she will not engage with him in a love affair. The modern reader may be accustomed to coupling such refusals with fiery anger and violence in the male suitor. Such stories abound in bars and nightclubs all over the world, even in spaces where courtship is not part of the accepted running order.

However, the speaker's attitude does not waver. His devotion overpowers his sense of loss. Despite crying a whole basin of tears—a further example of hyperbole in the poem—he can only think of his love:

Yet may that woe not confound my heart.
Your seemly voice that you so delicately bring forth,
Make my thoughts, in joy and bliss, abound.

His love, given the qualities of lightness and heat, "may not be cooled nor sunk." Love is noble, and his love is eminently so. It will not be brought to its knees, despite being unrequited. After all, should we not wish the best for those whom we love, even if it does not involve us?