Christopher Morley - Caught in the Undertow

COLIN, worshipping some frail,
By self-deception sways her:
Calls himself unworthy male,
Hardly even fit to praise her.

But this tactic insincere
In the upshot greatly grieves him
When he finds the lovely dear
Quite implicitly believes him.

Christopher Morley

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/caught-in-the-undertow/