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Love's Apotheosis
Love me. I care not what the circling yearsTo me may do.If, but in spite of time and tears,You prove but true.Love me--albeit grief shall dim mine eyes,And tears bedew,I shall not e'en complain, for then my skiesShall still be blue.Love me, and though the winter snow shall pile,And leave me chill,Thy passion's warmth shall make for me, meanwhile,A sun-kissed hill.And when the days have lengthened into years,And I grow old,Oh, spite of pains and griefs and cares and fears,Grow thou not cold.Then hand and hand we shall pass up the hill,I say not down;That twain go up, of love, who 've loved their fill,--To gain love's crown.Love me, and let my life take up thine own,As sun the dew....
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Friendship.
[From "Letters of Julius to Raphael," an unpublished Novel.]Friend! the Great Ruler, easily content,Needs not the laws it has laborious beenThe task of small professors to invent;A single wheel impels the whole machineMatter and spirit; yea, that simple law,Pervading nature, which our Newton saw.This taught the spheres, slaves to one golden rein,Their radiant labyrinths to weave aroundCreation's mighty hearts: this made the chain,Which into interwoven systems boundAll spirits streaming to the spiritual sunAs brooks that ever into ocean run!Did not the same strong mainspring urge and guideOur hearts to meet in love's eternal bond?Linked to thine arm, O Raphael, by thy sideMight I aspire to reach to souls beyondOur earth, ...
Friedrich Schiller
The Trinity
Much may be done with the world we are in,Much with the race to better it;We can unfetter it,Free it from chains of the old traditions;Broaden its viewpoint of virtue and sin;Change its conditionsOf labour and wealth;And open new roadways to knowledge and health.Yet some things ever must stay as they areWhile the sea has its tide and the sky has its star.A man and a woman with love between,Loyal and tender and true and clean,Nothing better has been or can beThan just those three.Woman may alter the first great plan.Daughters and sisters and mothersMay stalk with their brothersForth from their homes into noisy placesFit (and fit only) for masculine man.Marring their gracesWith conflict and strifeTo widen the o...
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Rutha.
The days are long and lonely, The weary eve comes on,And the nights are filled with dreaming Of one beloved and gone.I reach out in the darkness And clasp but empty air,For Rutha dear has vanished - I wonder, wonder where.Yet must it be: her nature So lovely, pure, and true;So nearly like the angels, Is she an angel too.The cottage is dismantled Of all that made it bright;Beyond its silent portal No love, nor life, nor light.Where are the hopes I cherished, The joys that once I knew,The dreams, the aspirations? All, all are perished too.Yes, love's dear chain is broken; From shore to shore I roam -No comfort, no companion, No happiness, n...
Hattie Howard
Song of Jasoda
Had I been young I could have claimed to fold theeFor many days against my eager breast;But, as things are, how can I hope to hold theeOnce thou hast wakened from this fleeting rest?Clear shone the moonlight, so that thou couldst find me,Yet not so clear that thou couldst see my face,Where in the shadow of the palms behind meI waited for thy steps, for thy embrace.What reck I now my morning life was lonely?For widowed feet the ways are always rough.Though thou hast come to me at sunset only,Still thou hast come, my Lord, it is enough.Ah, mine no more the glow of dawning beauty,The fragrance and the dainty gloss of youth,Worn by long years of solitude and duty,I have no bloom to offer thee in truth.Yet, since these eyes o...
Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
An Old Love Letter
I was reading a letter of yours to-day,The date - O a thousand years ago!The postmark is there - the month was May:How, in God's name, did I let you go?What wonderful things for a girl to say!And to think that I hadn't the sense to know -What wonderful things for a man to hear!O still beloved, O still most dear."Duty" I called it, and hugged the wordClose to my side, like a shirt of hair;You laughed, I remember, laughed like a bird,And somehow I thought that you didn't care.Duty! - and Love, with her bosom bare!No wonder you laughed, as we parted there -Then your letter came with this last good-by -And I sat splendidly down to die.Nor Duty, nor Death, would have aught of me:"He is Love's," they said, "he cannot be ours;"...
Richard Le Gallienne
Dream-Love
Young Love lies sleeping In May-time of the year,Among the lilies, Lapped in the tender light:White lambs come grazing, White doves come building there:And round about him The May-bushes are white.Soft moss the pillow For oh, a softer cheek;Broad leaves cast shadow Upon the heavy eyes:There winds and waters Grow lulled and scarcely speak;There twilight lingers The longest in the skies.Young Love lies dreaming; But who shall tell the dream?A perfect sunlight On rustling forest tips;Or perfect moonlight Upon a rippling stream;Or perfect silence, Or song of cherished lips.Burn odours round him To fill the drowsy air;Weave silent dan...
Christina Georgina Rossetti
A Lost Angel
When first we met she seemed so white I feared her;As one might near a spirit bright I neared her;An angel pure from heaven above I dreamed her,And far too good for human love I deemed her.A spirit free from mortal taint I thought her,And incense as unto a saint I brought her.Well, incense burning did not seem To please her,And insolence I feared shed deem To squeeze her;Nor did I dare for that same why To kiss her,Lest, shocked, shed cause my eager eye To miss her.I sickened thinking of some way To win her,When lo! she asked me, one fine day, To dinner!Twas thus that made of common flesh I found her,And in a mortal lovers mesh
Ellis Parker Butler
A Pearl, A Girl
A simple ring with a single stone,To the vulgar eye no stone of price:Whisper the right word, that alone,Forth starts a sprite, like fire from ice,And lo, you are lord (says an Eastern scroll)Of heaven and earth, lord whole and soleThrough the power in a pearl.A woman (tis I this time that say)With little the world counts worthy praiseUtter the true word, out and awayEscapes her soul: I am wrapt in blaze,Creations lord, of heaven and earthLord whole and sole, by a minutes birth,Through the love in a girl!
Robert Browning
Pictures.
The full-orbed Paschal moon; dark shadows flungOn the brown Lenten earth; tall spectral treesStand in their huge and naked strength erect,And stretch wild arms towards the gleaming sky.A motionless girl-figure, face upraisedIn the strong moonlight, cold and passionless. * * * * *A proud spring sunset; opal-tinted sky,Save where the western purple, pale and faintWith longing for her fickle Love, - contentHad merged herself into his burning red.A fair young maiden, clad in velvet robeOf sombre green, stands in the golden glow,One hand held up to shade her dazzled eyes,A bunch of white Narcissus at her throat. * * * * *November's day, dark, leaden, lowering, -Grey purple shadows fading on...
Sophie M. (Almon) Hensley
Bid Adieu, Adieu, Adieu
Bid adieu, adieu, adieu,Bid adieu to girlish days,Happy Love is come to wooThee and woo thy girlish ways,The zone that doth become thee fair,The snood upon thy yellow hair,When thou hast heard his name uponThe bugles of the cherubimBegin thou softly to unzoneThy girlish bosom unto himAnd softly to undo the snoodThat is the sign of maidenhood.
James Joyce
The Choosing Of Esther (From The Drama Of Mizpah)
AHASUERASTell me thy name!ESTHERMy name, great sire, is Esther.AHASUERASSo thou art Esther? Esther! 'tis a nameBreathed into sound as softly as a sigh.A woman's name should melt upon the lipsLike Love's first kisses, and thy countenanceIs fit companion for so sweet a name!ESTHERThou art most kind. I would my name and faceWere mine own making and not accident.Then I might feel elated at thy praise,Where now I feel confusion.AHASUERAS Thou hast witAs well as beauty, Esther. Both are gemsThat do embellish woman in man's sight.Yet they are gems of second magnitude!Dost THOU possess the one great perfect gem -The matchless jewel of the world called LOVE?<...
Celestial Love.
Non vider gli occhi miei.I saw no mortal beauty with these eyes When perfect peace in thy fair eyes I found; But far within, where all is holy ground, My soul felt Love, her comrade of the skies:For she was born with God in Paradise; Else should we still to transient loves be bound; But, finding these so false, we pass beyond Unto the Love of Loves that never dies.Nay, things that die, cannot assuage the thirst Of souls undying; nor Eternity Serves Time, where all must fade that flourisheth.Sense is not love, but lawlessness accurst: This kills the soul; while our love lifts on high Our friends on earth--higher in heaven through death.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
A Bouquet
A blossom pink, a blossom blue, Make all there is in love so true.'Tis fit, methinks, my heart to move, To give it thee, sweet girl, I love!Now, take it, dear, this morn and wear A wreath of beauty in thy hair;Think on it, when from bliss we part - The emblem of my wooing heart!
Edward Smyth Jones
Kinship
I.There is no flower of wood or lea,No April flower, as fair as she:O white anemone, who hastThe wind's wild grace,Know her a cousin of thy race,Into whose faceA presence like the wind's hath passed.II.There is no flower of wood or lea,No Maytime flower, as fair as she:O bluebell, tender with the blueOf limpid skies,Thy lineage hath kindred tiesIn her, whose eyesThe heav'n's own qualities imbue.III.There is no flower of wood or lea,No Juneday flower, as fair as she:Rose, odorous with beauty ofLife's first and best,Behold thy sister here confessed!Whose maiden breastIs fragrant with the dreams of love.
Madison Julius Cawein
My Goddess.
Say, which ImmortalMerits the highest reward?With none contend I,But I will give itTo the aye-changing,Ever-movingWondrous daughter of Jove.His best-beloved offspring.Sweet Phantasy.For unto herHath he grantedAll the fancies which erstTo none allow'd heSaving himself;Now he takes his pleasureIn the mad one.She may, crowned with roses,With staff twined round with lilies,Roam thro' flow'ry valleys,Rule the butterfly-people,And soft-nourishing dewWith bee-like lipsDrink from the blossom:Or else she mayWith fluttering hairAnd gloomy looksSigh in the windRound rocky cliffs,And thousand-hued.Like morn and even.Ever changing,Like moonbeam's ligh...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
First Love.
Ah, well can I the day recall, when first The conflict fierce of love I felt, and said: If this be love, how hard it is to bear! With eyes still fixed intent upon the ground, I saw but her, whose artless innocence, Triumphant took possession of this heart. Ah, Love, how badly hast thou governed me! Why should affection so sincere and pure, Bring with it such desire, such suffering? Why not serene, and full, and free from guile But sorrow-laden, and lamenting sore, Should joy so great into my heart descend? O tell me, tender heart, that sufferest so, Why with that thought such anguish should be blent, Compared with which, all other thoughts were naught? That t...
Giacomo Leopardi
To .... ....
The world has just begun to steal Each hope that led me lightly on;I felt not, as I used to feel, And life grew dark and love was gone.No eye to mingle sorrow's tear, No lip to mingle pleasure's breath,No circling arms to draw me near-- 'Twas gloomy, and I wished for death.But when I saw that gentle eye, Oh! something seemed to tell me then,That I was yet too young to die, And hope and bliss might bloom again.With every gentle smile that crost Your kindling cheek, you lighted homeSome feeling which my heart had lost And peace which far had learned to roam.'Twas then indeed so sweet to live, Hope looked so new and Love so kind.That, though I mourn, I yet forgive The ruin the...
Thomas Moore