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Love's Wisdom
Sometimes my idle heart would roam Far from its quiet happy nest,To seek some other newer home, Some unaccustomed Best:But ere it spreads its foolish wings,'Heart, stay at home, be wise!' Love's wisdom sings.Sometimes my idle heart would sail From out its quiet sheltered bay,To tempt a less pacific gale, And oceans far away:But ere it shakes its foolish wings,'Heart, stay at home, be wise!' Love's wisdom sings.Sometimes my idle heart would fly, Mothlike, to reach some shining sin,It seems so sweet to burn and die That wondrous light within:But ere it burns its foolish wings,'Heart, stay at home, be wise!' Love's wisdom sings.
Richard Le Gallienne
Young Love XVII - "Canst thou be true across so many miles,"
So many days that keep us still apart?Ah, canst thou live upon remembered smiles,And ask no warmer comfort for thy heart?I call thy name right up into the sky,Dear name, O surely she shall hear and hark!Nay, though I toss it singing up so high,It drops again, like yon returning lark.O be a dove, dear name, and find her breast,There croon and croodle all the lonely day;Go tell her that I love her still the best,So many days, so many miles, away.
Sympathy.
Therefore I dare reveal my private woe,The secret blots of my imperfect heart,Nor strive to shrink or swell mine own desert,Nor beautify nor hide. For this I know,That even as I am, thou also art.Thou past heroic forms unmoved shalt go,To pause and bide with me, to whisper low:"Not I alone am weak, not I apartMust suffer, struggle, conquer day by day.Here is my very cross by strangers borne,Here is my bosom-sun wherefrom I prayHourly deliverance - this my rose, my thorn.This woman my soul's need can understand,Stretching o'er silent gulfs her sister hand."
Emma Lazarus
Elusion
I.My soul goes out to her who says,"Come, follow me and cast off care!"Then tosses back her sun-bright hair,And like a flower before me swaysBetween the green leaves and my gaze:This creature like a girl, who smilesInto my eyes and softly laysHer hand in mine and leads me miles,Long miles of haunted forest ways.II.Sometimes she seems a faint perfume,A fragrance that a flower exhaledAnd God gave form to; now, unveiled,A sunbeam making gold the gloomOf vines that roof some woodland roomOf boughs; and now the silvery soundOf streams her presence doth assumeMusic, from which, in dreaming drowned,A crystal shape she seems to bloom.III.Sometimes she seems the light that liesOn foam of ...
Madison Julius Cawein
Anima Mundi
Let all things vanish, if but you remain;For if you stay, beloved, what is gone?Yet, should you go, all permanence is vain,And all the piled abundance is as none.With you beside me in the desert sand,Your smile upon me, and on mine your hand,Oases green arise, and camel-bells;For in the long adventure of your eyesAre all the wandering ways to Paradise.Existence, in your being, comes and goes;What were the garden, love, without the rose?In vain were ears to hear,And eyes in vain,Lacking your ordered music, sphere to sphere,Blind, should your beauty blossom not again.The pulse that shakes the world with rhythmic beatIs but the passing of your little feet;And all the singing vast of all the seas,Down from the pole
Love's Treacherous Pool
("Jeune fille, l'amour c'est un miroir.")[XXVI., February, 1835.]Young maiden, true love is a pool all mirroring clear,Where coquettish girls come to linger in long delight,For it banishes afar from the face all the clouds that besmearThe soul truly bright;But tempts you to ruffle its surface; drawing your footTo subtilest sinking! and farther and farther the brinkThat vainly you snatch - for repentance, 'tis weed without root, -And struggling, you sink!
Victor-Marie Hugo
To Valeria.
Broideries and ancient stuffs that some queenWore; nor gems that warriors' hilts encrusted;Nor fresh from heroes' brows the laurels green;Nor bright sheaves by bards of eld entrustedTo earth's great granaries--I bring not these.Only thin, scattered blades from harvests gleanedErewhile I plucked, may happen thee to please.So poor indeed, those others had demeanedThemselves to cull; or from their strong, firm handsDown dropped about their feet with careless laugh,Too broken for home gathering, these strands,Or else more useless than the idle chaff.But I have garnered them. Yet, lest they seemUnworthy, and so shame Love's offering,Amid the loose-bound sheaf stray flowers gleam.And fairer seeming make the gift I bring,Lilies blood-red, that lit ...
Ada Langworthy Collier
Summum Bonum
All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:Breath and bloom, shade and shine, wonder, wealth, and, how far above them,Truth, thats brighter than gem,Trust, thats purer than pearl,Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe, all were for meIn the kiss of one girl.
Robert Browning
The Gardeners Daughter
This morning is the morning of the day,When I and Eustace from the city wentTo see the Gardeners Daughter; I and he,Brothers in Art; a friendship so completePortiond in halves between us, that we grewThe fable of the city where we dwelt.My Eustace might have sat for Hercules;So muscular he spread, so broad of breast.He, by some law that holds in love, and drawsThe greater to the lesser, long desiredA certain miracle of symmetry,A miniature of loveliness, all graceSummd up and closed in little;Juliet, sheSo light of foot, so light of spiritoh, sheTo me myself, for some three careless moons,The summer pilot of an empty heartUnto the shores of nothing! Know you notSuch touches are but embassies of love,To tamper with the feelings,...
Alfred Lord Tennyson
The Platonic Lady
I could love thee till I die,Would'st thou love me modestly,And ne'er press, whilst I live,For more than willingly I would give:Which should sufficient be to proveI'd understand the art of love.I hate the thing is called enjoyment:Besides it is a dull employment,It cuts off all that's life and fireFrom that which may be termed desire;Just like the bee whose sting is goneConverts the owner to a drone.I love a youth will give me leaveHis body in my arms to wreathe;To press him gently, and to kiss;To sigh, and look with eyes that wishFor what, if I could once obtain,I would neglect with flat disdain.I'd give him liberty to toyAnd play with me, and count it joy.Our freedom should be full complete,And ...
John Wilmot
O, Were I Loved As I Desire To Be!
O, were I loved as I desire to be!What is there in the great sphere of the earth,Or range of evil between death and birth,That I should fear, - if I were loved by thee!All the inner, all the outer world of pain,Clear love would pierce and cleave, if thou wert mine;As I have heard that somewhere in the mainFresh-water springs come up through bitter brine.'I were joy, not fear, clasped hand in hand with thee,To wait for death - mute - careless of all ills,Apart upon a mountain, though the surgeOf some new deluge from a thousand hillsFlung leagues of roaring foam into the gorgeBelow us, as far on as eye could see.
Mystical Rose, Pray For Us!
O aptly named, Illustrious One! Thou art that flower fairThat filled this vast and changeful world With mystic perfume rare -Shedding on all the balmy breath Of countless virtues high,Rising like fragrant odours rich, To God's far, beauteous sky.Mystical Rose! O aptly named! For, as 'mid brightest flowersThe lovely Rose unquestioned reigns The Queen of Nature's bowers,So 'mid the daughters fair of Eve Art thou the peerless One!The chosen handmaid of the Lord! The Mother of His Son!Yes, He endowed thee with all gifts Which could thy beauty grace;And ne'er did sin, e'en for one hour, Thy spotless soul deface,For from the first thou had'st the power God's fav'ring love to w...
Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon
Waiting In Faith.
Se nel volto per gli occhiIf through the eyes the heart speaks clear and true, I have no stronger sureties than these eyes For my pure love. Prithee let them suffice, Lord of my soul, pity to gain from you.More tenderly perchance than is my due, Your spirit sees into my heart, where rise The flames of holy worship, nor denies The grace reserved for those who humbly sue.Oh, blesséd day when you at last are mine! Let time stand still, and let noon's chariot stay; Fixed be that moment on the dial of heaven!That I may clasp and keep, by grace divine, Clasp in these yearning arms and keep for aye My heart's loved lord to me desertless given!
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
The Light Of Your Beautiful Eyes.
As I stroll by the stream where you stray,A beam is reflected afar,Which seems, on the waters, a ray -The ray from a luminous star.What is it that sweetens my sight,That lightens the leaf-burthened skies?What is it, my Love, but the light, -The light of your beautiful eyes?As nearer and nearer I roam,In the month of the rosy-mouthed June,What is it that throws round your homeThe mirage of the mystical moon?What is it that softens my sight,That mellows the marvellous skies?What is it, my Love, but the light, -The light of your beautiful eyes?As I gaze on the girl of my love,My ravishing, radiant one,There seems to shower light from above,And I look for the summer-time sun.What is it that dazzles my sight,
A. H. Laidlaw
Never - Song
Love hath no place in her,Though in her bosom beLove-thoughts and dreams that stirLongings that know not me:Love hath no place in her,No place for me.Never within her eyesDo I the love-light see;Never her soul repliesTo the sad soul in me:Never with soul and eyesSpeaks she to me.She is a star, a rose,I but a moth, a bee;High in her heaven she glows,Blooms far away from me:She is a star, a rose,Never for me.Why will I think of herTo my heart's misery?Dreaming how sweet it wereHad she a thought of me:Why will I think of her!Why, why, ah me!
Translation From Catullus. - Ad Lesbiam.
Equal to Jove that youth must be -Greater than Jove he seems to me -Who, free from Jealousy's alarms,Securely views thy matchless charms;That cheek, which ever dimpling glows,That mouth, from whence such music flows,To him, alike, are always known,Reserv'd for him, and him alone.Ah! Lesbia! though 'tis death to me,I cannot choose but look on thee;But, at the sight, my senses fly,I needs must gaze, but, gazing, die;Whilst trembling with a thousand fears,Parch'd to the throat my tongue adheres,My pulse beats quick, my breath heaves short,My limbs deny their slight support;Cold dews my pallid face o'erspread,With deadly languor droops my head,My ears with tingling echoes ring,And Life itself is on the wing;My eyes refuse th...
George Gordon Byron
Rosabel.
I miss thee from my side, beloved, I miss thee from my side;And wearily and drearily Flows Time's resistless tide.The world, and all its fleeting joys, To me are worse than vain,Until I clasp thee to my heart, Beloved one, again.The wildwood and the forest-path, We used to thread of yore,With bird and bee have flown with thee, And gone for ever more!There is no music in the grove, No echo on the hill;But melancholy boughs are there-- And hushed the whip-poor-will.I miss thee in the town, beloved, I miss thee in the town;From morn I grieve till dewy eve Spreads wide its mantle brown.My spirit's wings, that once could soar In Fancy's world of air,Are crushed and beat...
George Pope Morris
For Ever
He heard it first upon the lips of love, And loved it for loves sake;A faithful word, that knows nor time nor change, Nor lone heart-break.It sung across his heart-strings like a breath Of Heavens faithfulness, that whispered NeverTo part, to lose, to linger from your gaze. She said, I love for ever.He heard it then upon the lips of death, Of things that fade and die;A word of sorrow never to be stilled, An ever echoing sigh.And loneliness within his soul did dwell, And struck upon his heart-strings, crying NeverTo meet, to have, to hold, to see again. She said, Good-bye for ever.
Dora Sigerson Shorter