What poets say about love
part 23
If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf,
Our lives would grow together
In sad or singing weather.
Swinburne””A Match. 411
O Love, O great god Love, what have I done,
That thou shouldst hunger so after my death?
My heart is harmless as my life’s first day:
Seek out some false fair woman, and plague her
Till her tears even as my tears fill her bed.
Swinburne””The Complaint of Lisa. 412
Love laid his sleepless head
On a thorny rose bed:
And his eyes with tears were red,
And pale his lips as the dead.
Swinburne””Love Laid his Sleepless Head. 413
I that have love and no more
Give you but love of you, sweet;
He that hath more, let him give;
He that hath wings, let him soar;
Mine is the heart at your feet
Here, that must love you to live.
Swinburne””The Oblation. 414
Cogas amantem irasci, amare si velis.
You must make a lover angry if you wish him to love.
Syrus””Maxims. 415
Tum, ut adsolet in amore et ira, jurgia, preces, exprobrutio, satisfactio.
Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.
Tacitus””Annales. XIII. 44. 416
When gloaming treads the heels of day
And birds sit cowering on the spray,
Along the flowery hedge I stray,
To meet mine ain dear somebody.
Robert Tannahill””Love’s Fear. 417
I love thee, I love but thee,
With a love that shall not die
Till the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old,
And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold!
Bayard Taylor””Bedouin Song. 418
Love better is than Fame.
Bayard Taylor””Christmas Sonnets. Lyrics. To J. L. G. 419
Love’s history, as Life’s, is ended not
By marriage.
Bayard Taylor””Lars. Bk. III. 420
For love’s humility is Love’s true pride.
Bayard Taylor””Poet’s Journal. Third Evening. The Mother. 421
And on her lover’s arm she leant,
And round her waist she felt it fold,
And far across the hills they went
In that new world which is the old.
Tennyson””Day Dream. The Departure. I. 422
Love lieth deep; Love dwells not in lip-depths.
Tennyson””Lover’s Tale. L. 466. 423
Where love could walk with banish’d Hope no more.
Tennyson””Lover’s Tale. L. 813. 424
Love’s arms were wreathed about the neck of Hope,
And Hope kiss’d Love, and Love drew in her breath
In that close kiss and drank her whisper’d tales.
They said that Love would die when Hope was gone.
And Love mourn’d long, and sorrow’d after Hope;
At last she sought out Memory, and they trod
The same old paths where Love had walked with Hope,
And Memory fed the soul of Love with tears.
Tennyson””Lover’s Tale. L. 815. 425
’Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.
Tennyson””In Memoriam. Pt. XXVII. St. 4. 426
For love reflects the thing beloved.
Tennyson””In Memoriam. Pt. LII. 427
Love’s too precious to be lost,
A little grain shall not be spilt.
Tennyson””In Memoriam. Pt. LXV. 428
I loved you, and my love had no return,
And therefore my true love has been my death.
Tennyson””Lancelot and Elaine. L. 1,298. 429
Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a moulder’d string?
I am shamed through all my nature to have lov’d so slight a thing.
Tennyson””Locksley Hall. St. 74. 430
There has fallen a splendid tear
From the passion-flower at the gate.
She is coming, my dove, my dear;
She is coming, my life, my fate;
The red rose cries, “She is near, she is near;”
And the white rose weeps, “She is late;”
The larkspur listens, “I hear; I hear;”
And the lily whispers, “I wait.”