Love forever

I will love you always and forever Till all these vows break and cease to hold, I will love you in pain and morbid clime, When all sorrows of life mark you at most, I will love you till all bards cease to rhyme And the nightingale stop her mellowed boast, I will love you […]

A Birthday

1862 My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a water’d shoot; My heart is like an apple tree Whose boughs are bent with thickset-fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come to me. […]

A Poet to His Beloved

1899 I bring you with reverent hands The books of my numberless dreams; White woman that passion has worn As the tide wears the dove-gray sands, And with heart more old than the horn That is brimmed from pale fire of time! White woman with numberless dreams I bring you my passionate rhyme. A poem […]

Love’s philosophy

1819 The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the Ocean, The winds of Heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In one spirit meet and mingle. Why not I with thine? See the mountains kiss high heaven And the […]

To my dear and loving husband

1678 If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee. If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold Or all the riches that the east doth hold. My love […]

Sonnet 43, from sonnets from the portuguese

1850 HOW do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I […]

A red, Red Rose

So it is the 14th of February again, lovers day as they call it! It is only fair then, that I should share with you some of the most famous lines in romantic poetry. And here is a 1794 piece by Robert Burns. O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in […]

SHEPHERD’S TALE, a reunion

I dreamt of the night we would meet, Beneath the stars and the moon sweet, And started then my rolling tears, When I thought of those pleasant years. O alas! By noble chance we meet, Arm in arm we do lock and greet; But my eyes do tremble as I stare, For what more thing […]

SHEPHERD’S TALE, a letter to the nymph

I remember when we did kiss and part, Where I bade farewell and tore us apart, That I ceased and caressed thy withered brow, Then seemed a dark night too wicked and slow. One decade has gone since the faultful night, And I wonder who has spotted thee bright, For I hear of thee fettered, […]

SHEPHERD’S TALE, parting day

LET us forget our yesterdays and part, To set these two false-living hearts apart, And delete those thoughts of old and move on, For what can love be when the spark is gone? Let us forget our yesterdays and part, To set these two false-living hearts apart, And delete all tears and sorrows amassed, And […]