Waking Up is Hard to Do - by Joyce Angelica Verdad

Drifting to sleep, my eyelids comply and they close. Eyes shut but my mind is running like crazy, weaving my dreams for tonight. Not surprisingly I see you there. You never leave my thoughts during the day, why would it be any different at night? 

Once in a While - by Joyce Angelica Verdad

Whisper my name as you touch my cheek

and after you pull it back 

I can still feel its warmth

gaze into my eyes as you continue to talk

Seeing Nonsense - by Joyce Angelica Verdad

When around you

I see ants dancing in circles

doing the tango around a bright yellow mango.

Poem 20 - by Pablo Neruda

Tonight I Can Write 

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. 

Write, for example, "The night is starry 

and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance."

Remember me - by Christina Rosetti

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.

Farewell Love - by Sir Thomas Wyatt

Farewell, Love, and all thy laws for ever:

Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more.

Senec and Plato call me from thy lore,

To perfect wealth my wit for to endeavour.

Where Shall the Lover Rest - by Sir Walter Scott

Where shall the lover rest

Whom the fates sever

From his true maiden's breast

Parted for ever?

An Epitaph Upon Husband and Wife - by Richard Crashaw

To these whom death again did wed

This grave 's the second marriage-bed.

For though the hand of Fate could force

'Twixt soul and body a divorce,

The Appeal - by Sir Thomas Wyatt

And wilt thou leave me thus!

Say nay, say nay, for shame!

—To save thee from the blame

Of all my grief and grame.

At The Mid Hour of Night - by Thomas Moore

At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly

To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;

And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air,

To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there,

Desideria - by William Wordsworth

Surprised by joy-impatient as the Wind

I turned to share the transport-O! with whom

But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,

That spot which no vicissitude can find?

When the Lamp is Shattered - by Percy Bysshe Shelley

When the lamp is shattered

The light in the dust lies dead- 

When the cloud is scattered,

The rainbow's glory is shed.

The Going - by Thomas Hardy

Why did you give no hint that night

That quickly after the morrow's dawn,

And calmly, as if indifferent quite,

You would close your term here, up and be gone

A Complaint - by William Worsworth

There is a change-and I am poor;

Your love hath been, nor long ago,

A fountain at my fond heart's door,

Whose only business was to flow;

To My Inconstant Mistress - by Thomas Carew

When thou, poor excommunicate

From all the joys of love, shalt see

The full reward and glorious fate

Which my strong faith shall purchase me,

When I Loved You - by Thomas Moore

When I loved you, I can’t but allow

I had many an exquisite minute;

But the scorn that I feel for you now

Hath even more luxury in it!

Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair - by Stephen Foster

I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair,

Borne, like a vapor, on the summer air;

I see her tripping where the bright streams play,

Happy as the daisies that dance on her way.

A Farewell to False Love - Sir Walter Raleigh

Farewell false love, the oracle of lies,

A mortal foe and enemy to rest,

An envious boy, from whom all cares arise,

A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed,

False Though She Be - by William Congreve

False though she be to me and love,

I'll ne'er pursue revenge;

For still the charmer I approve,

Though I deplore her change.

Inconstancy Reproved - by Sir Robert Ayton

I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair,

And I might have gone near to love thee,

Had I not found the slightest prayer

That lips could move, had power to move thee;

To the Willow-tree - by Robert Herrick

Thou art to all lost love the best,

The only true plant found,

Wherewith young men and maids distrest,  

And left of love, are crown'd.  

The Lost Mistress - by Robert Browning

All 's over, then: does truth sound bitter

As one at first believes?

Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter

About your cottage eaves!

I Will Not Let Thee Go - by Robert Bridges

I will not let thee go.

Ends all our month-long love in this?

Can it be summed up so,

Quit in a single kiss?

Song: 'Sweetest Love I Do Not Go' - by John Donne

Sweetest love, I do not go,

For weariness of thee,

Nor in hope the world can show

A fitter love for me ;

But since that I

At the last must part, 'tis best,

Thus to use myself in jest

By feigned deaths to die.

Yesternight the sun went hence,

And yet is here to-day ;

He hath no desire nor sense,

Nor half so short a way ;

Then fear not me,

But believe that I shall make

Speedier journeys, since I take

More wings and spurs than he.

O how feeble is man's power,

That if good fortune fall,

Cannot add another hour,

Nor a lost hour recall ;

But come bad chance,

And we join to it our strength,

And we teach it art and length,

Itself o'er us to advance.

When thou sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,

But sigh'st my soul away ;

When thou weep'st, unkindly kind,

My life's blood doth decay.

It cannot be

That thou lovest me as thou say'st,

If in thine my life thou waste,

That art the best of me.

Let not thy divining heart

Forethink me any ill ;

Destiny may take thy part,

And may thy fears fulfil.

But think that we

Are but turn'd aside to sleep.

They who one another keep

Alive, ne'er parted be.

The Banks O'Doon - by Robert Burns

Ye flowery banks o' bonie Doon,

How can ye blume sae fair?

How can ye chant, ye little birds,

And I sae fu' o' care?

Even So - by Dante Gabriel Rosetti

So it is, my dear.

All such things touch secret strings

For heavy hearts to hear.

So it is, my dear.

The Surrender - by Henry King

My once dear love, hapless that I no more

Must call thee so, the rich affection's store

That fed our hope lies now exhaust and spent,

Like sums of treasure unto bankrupts lent.

Sonnet XLII - by William Shakespeare

That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,

And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;

That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief,

A loss in love that touches me more nearly.

Without Her - by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

What of her glass without her? The blank gray

There where the pool is blind of the moon’s face.

Her dress without her? The tossed empty space

Of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away.

Remembrance - by Emily Bronte

Cold in the earth -- and the deep snow piled above thee,

Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!

Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,

Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?

The Night Has a Thousand Eyes - by Francis William Bourdillon

The Night has a thousand eyes,

And the day but one;

Yet the light of the bright world dies

With the dying sun.

The Hour-Glass - by Ben Johnson

Do but consider this small dust, here running in the glass,

By atoms moved.

Could you believe that this the body was

Of one that loved?

Heart, We will Forget Him! - by Emily Dickinson

Heart, we will forget him!

You an I, tonight!

You may forget the warmth he gave,

I will forget the light.

Her Voice - by Oscar Wilde

The wild bee reels from bough to bough

With his furry coat and his gauzy wing,

Now in a lily-cup, and now

Setting a jacinth bell a-swing,

The Apparition - by John Donne

When by thy scorn, O murd'ress, I am dead,

And that thou thinkst thee free

From all solicitation from me,

Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,

Severed Selves - by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Two separate divided silences,

Which, brought together, would find loving voice;

Two glances which together would rejoice

In love, now lost like stars beyond dark trees;

Annabel Lee - by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of ANNABEL LEE;

Farewell to Love - by Michael Drayton

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part,

Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,

And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,

That thus so cleanly I myself can free.

Youth Gone and Beauty Gone if Ever There - by Christina Rosseti

Youth gone, and beauty gone if ever there 

Dwelt beauty in so poor a face as this; 

Youth gone and beauty, what remains of bliss? 

I will not bind fresh roses in my hair,

From One Who Stays - by Amy Lowell

How empty seems the town now you are gone!

A wilderness of sad streets, where gaunt walls

Hide nothing to desire; sunshine falls

Eery, distorted, as it long had shone

O That 'Twere Possible - Alfred Lord Tennyson

O that ’twere possible

After long grief and pain

To find the arms of my true love

Round me once again!...

When I Was One-and-Twenty - by Alfred Edward Housman

When I was one-and-twenty

I heard a wise man say,

'Give crowns and pounds and guineas

But not your heart away;

Love's Pains - by John Clare

This love, I canna' bear it,

It cheats me night and day;

This love, I canna' wear it,

It takes my peace away.

So We'll Go No More A-Roving - by George Gordon, Lord Byron

So, we'll go no more a-roving

So late into the night,

Though the heart be still as loving,

And the moon be still as bright.

No Tears - Alexander Pushkin

Under the blue skies of her native land

She languished and began to fade...

Until surely there flew without a sound

Above me, her young shade.

Grown and Flown - by Christina Rosseti

I loved my love from green of Spring

Until sere Autumn's fall;

But now that leaves are withering

How should one love at all?

Along the Field as We Came By - Alfred Edward Housman

Along the field as we came by 

A year ago, my love and I, 

The aspen over stile and stone 

Was talking to itself alone.

Jean - by Rober Burns

Of a' the airts the wind can blaw,

I dearly like the west,

For there the bonnie lassie lives,

The lassie I lo'e best:

If You Were Coming in the Fall - by Emily Dickinson

If you were coming in the fall,

I'd brush the summer by

With half a smile and half a spurn,

As housewives do a fly.

On Parting - by George Gordon and Lord Byron

The kiss, dear maid! thy lip has left

Shall never part from mine,

Till happier hours restore the gift

Untainted back to thine.

Sonnet XCVII - by William Shakespeare

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December's bareness every where!

A Wife in London - by Thomas Hardy

I. The Tragedy 

She sits in the tawny vapour

That the City lanes have uprolled,

Behind whose webby fold on fold

Like a waning taper

To an Absent Lover - by Helen Hunt Jackson

That so much change should come when thou dost go,

Is mystery that I cannot ravel quite.

The very house seems dark as when the light

Of lamps goes out. Each wonted thing doth grow

Harp Song of the Dane Women - by Rudyard Kipling

What is a woman that you forsake her, 

And the hearth-fire and the home-acre. 

To go with the old grey Widow-maker? 

Sonnet XLIV - by William Shakespeare

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,

Injurious distance should not stop my way;

For then despite of space I would be brought,

From limits far remote where thou dost stay.

Ae Fond Kiss, and Then We Sever - by Robert Burns

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;

Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,

Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

A Farewell - by Sir Philip Sidney

Oft have I mused, but now at length I find

Why those that die, men say, they do depart:

Depart:  a word so gentle to my mind,

Weakly did seem to paint Death’s ugly dart.

She is Far From the Land - by Thomas Moore

She is far from the land, where her young hero sleeps,

And lovers are round her, sighing;

But coldly she turns from their gaze, and weeps,

For her heart in his grave is lying!

Absence - by Thomas Campbell

'Tis not the loss of love's assurance,

It is not doubting what thou art,

But 'tis the too, too long endurance

Of absence, that afflicts my heart

The Rover's Adieu - by Sir Walter Scott

A weary lot is thine, fair maid,

A weary lot is thine!

To pull the thorn thy brow to braid,

And press the rue for wine.

A Red, Red Rose - by Robert Burns

Oh my luve is like a red, red rose, 

That's newly sprung in June: 

Oh my luve is like the melodie, 

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

To Althea, From Prison - by Richard Lovelace

When Love with unconfined wings

Hovers within my Gates ;

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the Grates ;

Echoes and Memories - by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Music, when soft voices die,

Vibrates in the memory

Odours, when sweet violets sicken,

Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,

Are heaped for the beloved's bed;

And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,

Love itself shall slumber on.

Song to a Fair Young Lady, Going Out of the Town in the Spring - by John Dryden

 Ask not the cause why sullen spring

So long delays her flow'rs to bear;

Why warbling birds forget to sing,

And winter storms invert the year?

When we Two Parted - by Lord Byron

When we two parted

In silence and tears,

Half broken-hearted,

To sever for years,

Carrier Letter - by Hart Cane

My hands have not touched water since your hands,– 

No; – nor my lips freed laughter since 'farewell'.

And with the day, distance again expands

Between us, voiceless as an uncoiled shell.

I Leave Thee for Awhile - by Eliza Cook

I leave thee for awhile, my love, I leave thee with a sigh; 

The fountain spring within my soul is playing in mine eye; 

I do not blush to own the tear,--let, let it touch my cheek,

And what my lip has failed to tell, that drop perchance may speak.

Complaint of the Absense of Her Love Being Upon the Sea - by Henry Howard

O happy dames, that may embrace

The fruit of your delight,

Help to bewail the woeful case

And eke the heavy plight

Amoretti Sonnet LXXXIX - by Edmund Spenser

Men call you fayre, and you doe credit it,

For that your selfe ye dayly such doe see:

but the trew fayre, that is the gentle wit,

and vertuous mind is much more praysd of me.

A Farewell - by Coventry Patmore

With all my will, but much against my heart,

We two now part.

My Very Dear,

Our solace is, the sad road lies so clear.

Silent is the House - Emily Bronte

Come, the wind may never again

Blow as now it blows for us;

And the stars may never again shine as now they shine;

Long before October returns,

I Am Shun Out of Mine Own Heart - by Christopher Brennan

I am shut out of mine own heart

because my love is far from me,

nor in the wonders have I part

that fill its hidden empery:

Love Lies Bleeding - William Word'sworth

You call it, Love lies bleeding - so you may,

Though the red Flower, not prostrate, only droops,

As we have seen it here from day to day,

From month to month, life passing not away:

Life in a Love - by Robert Browning

Escape me?

Never

Beloved!

While I am I, and you are you,

A Broken Appointment - Thomas Hardy

You did not come,

And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb.

Yet less for loss of your dear presence there

Than that I thus found lacking in your make

She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways - by William Wordsworth

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

Maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love:

Astrophel and Stella Sonnet XXXI - by Sir Philip Sidney

With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!

How silently, and with how wan a face!

What, may it be that even in heav'nly place

That busy archer his sharp arrows tries!

There is a Lady Sweet and Kind - by Thomas Ford

There is a lady sweet and kind,

Was never face so pleas'd my mind;

I did but see her passing by,

And yet I love her till I die.

Astrophel and Stella Sonnet XIX - Sir Philip Sidney

On Cupid's bow how are my heart-strings bent,

That see my wrack, and yet embrace the same!

When most I glory, then I feel most shame;

I willing run, yet while I run repent;

Encouragements to a Lover - by Sir John Suckling

Why so pale and wan, fond lover? 

Prythee, why so pale?

Will, if looking well can't move her,

Looking ill prevail?

Proud Word You Never Spoke - Walter Savage Landor

Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak  

Four not exempt from pride some future day.  

Resting on one white hand a warm wet cheek,  

Over my open volume you will say,

To His Coy Love - Michael Drayton

I Pray thee, leave, love me no more,

Call home the heart you gave me!

I but in vain that saint adore

That can but will not save me.

To the Western Wind - by Robert Herrick

Sweet western wind, whose luck it is,

Made rival with the air,

To give Perenna's lip a kiss,

And fan her wanton hair:

Song - by John Keats

You say you love; but with a voice

Chaster than a nun's, who singeth

The soft vespers to herself

While the chime-bell ringeth—

To a Stranger - by Walt Whitman

Passing stranger! you do not know

How longingly I look upon you,

You must be he I was seeking,

Or she I was seeking

I Prithee Send Me Back My Heart - Sir John Suckling

I prithee send me back my heart,

Since I cannot have thine;

For if from yours you will not part,

Why, then, shouldst thou have mine?

To Electra - by Robert Herrick

I dare not ask a kiss, 

I dare not beg a smile, 

Lest having that, or this, 

I might grow proud the while.

To Mary - by John Clare

I sleep with thee, and wake with thee,

And yet thou art not there;

I fill my arms with thoughts of thee,

And press the common air.

Love's Philosophy - by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river,

And the rivers with the ocean;

The winds of heaven mix forever,

With a sweet emotion;

Tell Me No More - by Henry King

Tell me no more how fair she is, 

I have no minde to hear 

The story of that distant bliss 

I never shall come near:

One Way of Love - by Robert Browning

All June I bound the rose in sheaves.

Now, rose by rose, I strip the leaves

And strow them where Pauline may pass.

She will not turn aside? Alas!

Damelus' Song to Diaphenia - Henry Constable

Diaphenia, like the daffadowndilly,

White as the sun, fair as the lily,

Heigh ho, how I do love thee!

I do love thee as my lambs

Love's Secret - William Blake

Never seek to tell thy love, 

Love that never told can be; 

For the gentle wind does move 

Silently, invisibly.

Song - by Hartley Coleridge

She is not fair to outward view

As many maidens be,

Her loveliness I never knew

Until she smiled on me;

The Silent Lover - by Sir Walter Raleigh

Wrong not, sweet empress of my heart,

The merit of true passion,

With thinking that he feels no smart,

That sues for no compassion.

The December Rose - by Edith Nesbit

 Here's a rose that blows for Chloe,

Fair as ever a rose in June was,

Now the garden's silent, snowy,

Where the burning summer noon was.

Coldness in Love - by D. H. Lawrence

And you remember, in the afternoon

The sea and the sky went grey, as if there had sunk

A flocculent dust on the floor of the world: the festoon

Of the sky sagged dusty as spider cloth,

Amoretti Sonnet XXX - by Edmund Spencer

My love is like to ice, and I to fire;

How comes it then that this her cold so great

Is not dissolved through my so-hot desire,

But harder grows the more I her intreat?

A Dream Within a Dream - Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow--

You are not wrong, who deem

Like the Touch of Rain - by Edward Thomas

Like the touch of rain she was

On a man's flesh and hair and eyes

When the joy of walking thus

Has taken him by surprise:

Song to Celia - by Ben Johnson

Drink to me, only with thine eyes

And I will pledge with mine;

Or leave a kiss but in the cup,

And I'll not look for wine.

The Definition of Love - by Andrew Marvell

 My love is of a birth as rare

As 'tis, for object, strange and high ;

It was begotten by Despair,

Upon Impossibility.

My Heart was Slain - by Michael Drayton

My heart was slain, and none but you and I;

Who should I think the murther should commit,

Since but yourself there was no creature by,

But only I, guiltless of murth'ring it?

Renouncement - Alice Meynell

I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,

I shun the love that lurks in all delight-

The love of thee-and in the blue heaven's height,

And in the dearest passage of a song.

Love Arm'd - by Aphra Behn

Love in Fantastique Triumph sat,

Whilst bleeding Hearts around him flow'd,

For whom Fresh pains he did create,

And strange Tryanic power he show'd;

Vivien's Song - by Alfred Lord Tennyson

‘In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,

Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers:

Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

Why The Roses Are So Pale - by Heinrich Heine

O dearest, canst thou tell me why

The rose should be so pale?

And why the azure violet

Should wither in the vale?

Go, Lovely Rose - by Edmund Waller

Go, lovely Rose—

Tell her that wastes her time and me,

That now she knows,

When I resemble her to thee,

If Grief For Brief Can Touch Thee - Emily Bronte

If grief for grief can touch thee,

If answering woe for woe,

If any truth can melt thee

Come to me now!

Proud of My Broken Heart - by Emily Dickinson

Proud of my broken heart, since thou didst break it,

Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee,

Proud of my night, since thou with moons dost slake it,

Not to partake thy passion, my humility.

I Loved You Once - by Alexander Pushkin

I loved you once, nor can this heart be quiet;

For it would seem that love still lingers there;

But do not you be further troubled by it;

I would in no wise hurt you, oh, my dear.

Satires of Circumstace IX At the Altar Rail - by Thomas Hardy

'My bride is not coming, alas!' says the groom,

And the telegram shakes in his hand. 'I own

It was hurried! We met at a dancing-room

When I went to the Cattle-Show alone,

The Angel in the House - by Coventry Patmore

Across the sky the delight crept,

And birds grew garrulous in the grove,

And on my marriage-morn I slept

A soft sleep, undisturb'd by love.

Ruth - by Thomas Hood

She stood breast-high amid the corn,

Clasp'd by the golden light of morn,

Like the sweetheart of the sun,

Who many a glowing kiss had won.

The Wedding Night - by Johann Wolfgang Von Goetht

Within the chamber, far away

From the glad feast, sits Love in dread

Lest guests disturb, in wanton play,

Sonnet VIII - William Shakespeare

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? 

Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy: 

Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,

Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?

Satires of Circumstance I. At Tea - by Thomas Hardy

The kettle descants in a cosy drone,

And the young wife looks in her husband's face,

And then at her guest's, and shows in her own

Her sense that she fills an envied place;

Traditional Gaelic Blessing - by Anonymous

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,

The Happy Husband - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Oft, oft, methinks, the while with thee

I breathe, as from the heart, thy dear

And dedicated bame, I hear

A promise and a mystery,

Love is Enough - by William Morris

Love is enough: though the world be a-waning,

And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,

Though the skies be too dark for dim eyes to discover

The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,

The Prophet on Marriage - by Khalil Gibran

Then Almitra spoke again and said...

"And what of Marriage, master?"

And he answered saying:

You were born together,

Bridal Song - by William Shakespeare

Roses, their sharp spines being gone,

Not royal in their smells alone,

But in their hue;

Maiden pinks, of odour faint,

To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time - by Robert Herrick

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day

To-morrow will be dying.

My Wife - by Robert Louis Stevenson

Trusty, dusky, vivid, true,

With eyes of gold and bramble-dew,

Steel-true and blade-straight,

The great artificer

Made my mate.

Honour, anger, valour, fire;

A love that life could never tire,

Death quench or evil stir,

The mighty master

Gave to her.

Teacher, tender, comrade, wife,

A fellow-farer true through life,

Heart-whole and soul-free

The august father

Gave to me.

Bridal Song - by John Fletcher

Cynthia, to thy power and thee 

We obey. 

Joy to this great company! 

And no day

To Silvia, To Wed

Let us, though late, at last, my Silvia, wed;

And loving lie in one devoted bed.

Thy watch may stand, my minutes fly post haste;

No sound calls back the year that once is past.

A Letter to Her Husband - by Anne Bradstreet

My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, nay more,

My joy, my magazine, of earthly store,

If two be one, as surely thou and I,

How stayest thou there, whilst I at Ipswich lie?

To One Persuading a Lady to Marriage - by Katherine Philips

Forbear, bold youth; all's heaven here,

And what you do aver

To others courtship may appear,

'Tis sacrilege to her.

John Anderson, My Jo - by Robert Burns

John Anderson, my jo, John, 

When we were first acquent; 

Your locks were like the raven, 

Your bonie brow was brent;

Bridal Song - by George Chapman

O COME, soft rest of cares! come, Night!

Come, naked Virtue's only tire,

The reaped harvest of the light

Bound up in sheaves of sacred fire.

I Gave Myself to Him - by Emily Dickinson

I gave myself to him,

And took himself for pay.

The solemn contract of a life

Was ratified this way

Marriage - by Mary Weston Fordham

The die is cast, come weal, come woe,

Two lives are joined together,

For better or for worse, the link

Which naught but death can sever.

Before the Birth of One of Her Children - by Anne Bradstreet

All things within this fading world hath end,

Adversity doth still our joys attend; 

No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet,

But with death's parting blow are sure to meet.

The Good-Morrow - by John Donne

I wonder by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then? 

But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly? 

Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?

At the Wedding-March - Gerard Manley Hopkins

God with honour hang your head, 

Groom, and grace you, bride, your bed 

With lissome scions, sweet scions, 

Out of hallowed bodies bred.

Nuptial Sleep - Dante Gabriel Rosseti

 At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart:

And as the last slow sudden drops are shed

From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled,

So singly flagged the pulses of each heart.

To A Husband - a by Anne Finch

This is to the crown and blessing of my life,

The much loved husband of a happy wife;

To him whose constant passion found the art

To win a stubborn and ungrateful heart,

A Marriage Ring - George Crabbe

The ring, so worn as you behold, 

So thin, so pale, is yet of gold: 

The passion such it was to prove-

Worn with life's care, love yet was love.

The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd - by Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee and be thy love.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love - by Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

To My Dear and Loving Husband - Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me ye women if you can.

Sonnet III - by William Shakespeare

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest 

Now is the time that face should form another; 

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, 

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother,

Wedlock - by Benjamin Franklin

 Wedlock, as old men note, hath likened been, 

Unto a public crowd or common rout;

Where those that are without would fain get in,

And those that are within, would fain get out.

The Bridal Veil - by Alice Cary

We're married, they say, and you think you have won me,--

Well, take this white veil from my head, and look on me;

Here's matter to vex you, and matter to grieve you,

Here's doubt to distrust you, and faith to believe you,--

Words on Feeling Safe - George Eliot

Oh the comfort of feeling safe

with a person;

having neither to weigh thoughts,

nor measure words,

Marriage Morning - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Light, so low upon earth,

You send a flash to the sun.

Here is the golden close of love,

All my wooing is done.

Oh, the woods and the meadows,

Woods where we hid from the wet,

Stiles where we stay'd to be kind,

Meadows in which we met!

Light, so low in the vale

You flash and lighten afar,

For this is the golden morning of love,

And you are his morning star.

Flash, I am coming, I come,

By meadow and stile and wood,

Oh, lighten into my eyes and heart,

Into my heart and my blood!

Heart, are you great enough

For a love that never tires?

O' heart, are you great enough for love?

I have heard of thorns and briers,

Over the meadow and stiles,

Over the world to the end of it

Flash for a million miles.

Go and Catch a Falling Star - by John Donne

GO and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

Or who cleft the devil's foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy's stinging,

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind. 

If thou be'st born to strange sights,

Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand days and nights,

Till age snow white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,

All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear,

No where

Lives a woman true and fair. 

The Bracelet: To Julia - by Robert Herrick

Why I tie about thy wrist,

Julia, this silken twist;

For what other reason is't

But to show thee how, in part,

Freedom and Love - by Thomas Campbell

How delicious is the winning

Of a kiss at love's beginning,

When two mutual hearts are sighing

For the knot there's no untying!

Sonnet XIV - William Shakespeare

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;

And yet methinks I have astronomy,

But not to tell of good or evil luck, 

Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;

If Thou Must Love Me... - by Elizabeth Barret Browning

If thou must love me, let it be for nought

Except for love's sake only. Do not say

"I love her for her smile-her look-her way

Of speaking gently,-for a trick of thought

My True-Love Hath My Heart - Sir Philip Sidney

My true-love hath my heart and I have his,

By just exchange one for the other given;

I hold his dear and mine he cannot miss;

There never was a better bargain driven.

The Indian Serenade - by Percy Bysshe Shelly

I arise from dreams of thee

In the first sweet sleep of night,

When the winds are breathing low,

And the stars are shining bright:

I Will Make You Brooches - Robert Louis Stevenson

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight

Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.

I will make a palace fit for you and me

Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

To Chloe: Who For His Sake Wished Herself Young - William Cartwright

There are two births; the one when light

First strikes the new awaken’d sense;

The other when two souls unite,

And we must count our life from thence:

Chloris in the Snow - William Strode

I saw fair Chloris walk alone,

When feather'd rain came softly down,

As Jove descending from his Tower

To court her in a silver shower:

Ah, God the Way Your Little Finger Moved - by Stephen Crane

Ah, God, the way your little finger moved 

As you thrust a bare arm backward 

And made play with your hair 

And a comb a silly gilt comb

Break of Day - by John Donne

‘Tis true, ‘tis day, what though it be?

O wilt thou therefore rise from me?

Why should we rise because ‘tis light?

Did we lie down because ‘twas night?

How Do I Love Thee? - by Elizabeth Barret Browning

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.

Sonnet CXVI - by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

Bonnie Annie Laurie - by William Douglas

Maxwelton's braes are bonnie

Where early fa's the dew

And 'twas there that Annie Laurie

Gave me her promise true

Astrophel and Stella Sonnet LIV - by Sir Philip Sidney

Because I breathe not love to every one,

Nor do not use set colours for to wear,

Nor nourish special locks of vowed hair,

Nor give each speech a full point of a groan,

The courtly nymphs, acquainted with the moan

Of them who in their lips Love's standard bear,

"What, he!" say they of me, 'now I dare swear

He cannot love; no, no, let him alone.' 

And think so still, so Stella know my mind!

Profess, indeed, I do not Cupid's art;

But you, fair maids, at length this true shall find,

That his right badge is worn but in the heart.

Dumb swans, not chattering pies, do lovers prove;

They love indeed who quake to say they love. 

Dear, I to Thee This Diamond Commend - by Sir John Harrington

Dear, I to thee this diamond commend,

In which a model of thyself I send.

How just unto thy joints this circlet sitteth,

So just thy face and shape my fancy fitteth.

An Evening Song - by Sidney Lanier

Look off, dear Love, across the sallow sands,

And mark yon meeting of the sun and sea,

How long they kiss in sight of all the lands.

Ah! longer, longer, we.

Love - by Rupert Brooke

Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate,

Where that comes in that shall not go again;

Love sells the proud heart's citadel to Fate.

They have known shame, who love unloved. Even then,

Jenny Kissed Me - James Leigh Hunt

Jenny kiss'd me when we met,

Jumping from the chair she sat in;

Time, you thief, who love to get

Sweets into your list, put that in!

To Jane: The Keen Stars Were Twinkling - by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The keen stars were twinkling,

And the fair moon was rising among them,

Dear Jane!

The guitar was tinkling,

How Sweet I Roam'd From Field to Field - by William Blake

How sweet I roam'd from field to field,

And tasted all the summer's pride

'Til the prince of love beheld

Who in the sunny beams did glide!

Longing - by Mathew Arnold

Come to me in my dreams, and then

By day I shall be well again!

For so the night will more than pay

The hopeless longing of the day.

Meeting at Night - by Robert Browning

The grey sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low;

And the startled little waves that leap

In fiery ringlets from their sleep,

Song(Secret Love) - by John Clare

I hid my love when young while I

Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly

I hid my love to my despite

Till I could not bear to look at light

Delight in Disorder - by Robert Herrick

A sweet disorder in the dress 

Kindles in clothes a wantonness:

A lawn about the shoulders thrown 

Into a fine distraction:

Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast - by John Keats

Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art -

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,

The Evening Star - by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Lo! in the painted oriel of the West, 

Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines, 

Like a fair lady at her casement, shines 

The evening star, the star of love and rest!

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal - by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;

Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;

Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:

The firefly wakens: waken thou with me.

Amoretti Sonnet LXXV - by Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I write it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

On a Girdle - by Edmund Waller

That which her slender waist confined

Shall now my joyful temples bind;

No monarch but would give his crown

His arms might do what this has done.

At Last - by Elizabeth Akers Allen

At last, when all the summer shine

That warmed life's early hours is past,

Your loving fingers seek for mine

And hold them close - at last - at last!

When I Have Fears - by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be

Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Before high-piled books, in charactery,

Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;

The Flea - by John Donne

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, 

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

On the Balcony - by D.H. Lawrence

In front of the sombre mountains, a faint, lost ribbon of rainbows;

And between us and it, the thunder;

And down below in the green wheat, the labourers

Stand like dark stumps, still in the green wheat

Sonnet XVIII - by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Love Not Me - by John Wilbye

Love not me for comely grace,

For my pleasing eye or face,

Nor for any outward part:

Madonna of the Evening flowers - by Amy Lowell

All day long I have been working

Now I am tired.

I call: "Where are you?"

But there is only the oak tree rustling in the wind.

She Comes Not When Noon is on the Roses - by Herbert Trench

She comes not when Noon is on the roses-

Too bright is Day. 

She comes not to the Soul till it reposes 

From work and play.

Let's Live and Love: To Lesbia - by Gaius Valerius Catullus

Let us live, my Lesbia, let us love,

and all the words of the old, and so moral,

may they be worth less than nothing to us!

Suns may set, and suns may rise again:

Love's Trinity - by Alfred Austin

Soul, heart, and body, we thus singly name,

Are not in love divisible and distinct,

But each with each inseparably link'd.

One is not honour, and the other shame,

I Love Thee - by Eliza Acton

I love thee, as I love the calm

Of sweet, star-lighted hours!

I love thee, as I love the balm

Of early jes'mine flow'rs.

To His Coy Mistress - by Andrew Marvell

Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love's day;

My Lady Looks So Gentle and So Pure - by Dante Alighieri

My lady looks so gentle and so pure

When yielding salutation by the way,

That the tongue trembles and has naught to say,

And the eyes, which fain would see, may not endure.

Sonnet LXXV: William Shakespeare

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,

Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;

And for the peace of you I hold such strife

As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found;

Love My Love in the Morning: Gerald Griffin

I love my love in the morning,

For she like morn is fair -

Her blushing cheek, its crimson streak,

Its clouds her golden hair.

Wild Nights! Wild Nights!: Emily Dickinson

Wild nights! Wild nights! 

Were I with thee, 

Wild nights should be 

Our luxury!

She Walks in Beauty: George Gordon, Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

The Face That Launch'd a Thousand Ships: Christopher Marlowe

Was this that launch'd a thousand ships

And burnt the topless towers of Illium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!

The Dream - by Aphra Behn

All trembling in my arms Aminta lay,

Defending of the bliss I strove to take;

Raising my rapture by her kind delay,

Her force so charming was and weak.