Love Poems

We kissed at the barrier, and passing through
She left me, and moment by moment got
Smaller and smaller, until to my view
She was but a spot;

A wee white spot of muslin fluff
That doun the diminishing platform bore
Through hustling crowds of gentle and rough
To the carriage door.

Under the lamplight's fitful glowers,
Behind dark groups from far and near,
Whose interests were apart from ours,
She would disappear,

Then show again, till ceased to see
That flexible from, that nebulous white;
And she who was more then my life to me
Had vanished quite.

We have penned new plans since that fair fond day,
And in season she will appear again -
Perhaps in the same soft white array -
But never as then!

-'And why, young man, must eternally fly
A joy you'll repeat, if you love her well?'
- O friend, nought happens twice thus; why,
I cannot tell!

today is our first wedding anniversary, so i thought i’d tell the story of how j and i met, since i’ve never really done that here.

What slender youth, besprinkled with perfume,
Courts you on roses in some grotto's shade?
Fair Pyrrha, say, for whom
Your yellow hair you braid,

So trim, so simple! Ah! how oft shall he
Lament that faith can fail, that gods can change,
Viewing the rough black sea
With eyes to tempests strange,

Who now is basking in your golden smile,
And dreams of you still fancy-free, still kind,
Poor fool, nor knows the guile
Of the deceitful wind!

Woe to the eyes you dazzle without cloud
Untried! For me, they show in yonder fane
My dripping garments, vow'd
To Him who curbs the main.

Take for example the Procedural Dating Kit, which I could make good use of. Individual Date Dossiers, Date feedback cards and my personal fav, the Relationship Resume!

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. 

Shakespeare may have addressed this sonnet to a young man, but it could also describe my feelings for my wife. It is one of the most serene love poems ever written and what could be a better celebration of marriage than a poem that declares undying love and has stood the test of time? No, it is not our marriage anniversary or any special occasion, but I just borrowed a copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and was browsing through Flickr when I was overcome by this desire to transcribe my favourite sonnet. And this picture of roses seemed just the thing to go with it. I love roses. And, to quote Burns,

Awake, my fair, my love, awake,
So that I may gaze upon you!
And if one is eager to kiss your lips,
In your dreams this do you see,
Lo, then I myself of your dream
The interpreter will be.