A man can "get away with" being sweet, writing poetry and doing other romantic and sentimental things that would otherwise make him look weak, so long as it's contrasted by an active capacity for savagery.

A brutally ruthless man who writes touching heartfelt letters is captivating, a paradox, an enigma - doing the unexpected and seemingly more complete because of it through his sheer defiance of categorisation, whilst a man who does the same without such contrast has no foundation of respect for legitimising his romantic self-expression, and is thus far likelier to elicit disgust and disrespect.

Of course, the true poetry in all of this is that if you want a license to be wholesome, then you should prepare to demonstrate your capacity to be thoroughly unwholesome, in much the same way they say the man who seeks peace should prepare for war, life is full of these counterintuitive little quirks where one must veer in the opposite direction of where they truly wish to go, in order to arrive at their heart's desire.