Readings: Poetry
Many ceremonies can have poetry readings. The following list offers many poems
you may want to incorporate into your ceremony, or include on your ceremony
program. For additional
readings, visit the Poetry
Readings Page compiled by Mary Jane N. Shroyer or
The Poetry Corner.
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple tree
Whose boughts 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.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
"A Match" by Algernon Charles Swinburne
If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf,
Our lives would grow together
In sad or singing weather,
Blown fields or flowerful closes,
Green pleasure or gray grief;
If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf.
If I were what the words are,
And love were like the tune,
With double sound and single
Delight our lips would mingle,
With kisses glad as birds are
That get sweet rain at noon;
If I were what the words are,
And love were like the tune.
"A Wedding Toast" by Richard Wilbur
St. John tells how, at Cana's wedding-feast,
The water-pots poured wine in such amount
That by his sober count
there were a hundred gallons at the least.
It made no earthly sense, unless to show
How whatsoever love elects to bless
Brims to a sweet excess
That can without depletion overflow.
Which is to say that what love sees is true;
That the world's fullness is not made but found.
Life hungers to abound
And pour its plenty out for such as you.
Now, if your loves will lend an ear to mine,
I toast you both, good son and dear new daughter.
May you not lack for water,
And may that water smack of Cana's wine.
From the American Wedding Album catalog
Let this be our destiny . . .
to love, to live,
to begin each new day together,
to share our lives forever.
"Amoret" by J.B.B. Nichols
Love found you still a child,
Who looked on him and smiled
Scornful with laughter mild
And knew him not:
Love turned and looked on you,
Love looked and he smiled too,
And all at once you knew
You knew not what.
Love laughed again, and said
Smiling, "Be not afraid:
Though lord of all things made,
I do no wrong:
Like you I love all flowers,
All dusky twilight hours,
Spring sunshine and Spring showers,
Like you am young."
Love looked into your eyes,
Your clear cold idle eyes,
Said, "These shall be my prize,
Their light my light;
These tender lips that move
With laughter soft as love
Shall tremble still and prove
Love's very might."
Love took you by the hand
At eve, and bade you stand
At edge of the woodland,
Where I should pass;
Love sent me thither, sweet,
And brought me to your feet;
He willed that we should meet,
And so it was.
"Benediction of the American Indians"
Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to theother.
Now you are two persons, but there are three lives before you: his life,her life and your life together.
Go now to your dwelling place, to enter into the days of your life
together. May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through
all the years May happiness be your companion to the place where the river meets the sun,
And may your days together be good and long upon this earth.
Variation of the Apache Wedding Poem
Now we will feel no rain, for each of us will be shelter to the other.
Now we will feel no cold, for each of us will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no loneliness.
We are two bodies but there is one life before us, and one home.
When evening falls I will look up and there you'll be.
I'll take your hand and you'll take mine and we'll turn together to look
at the road we travelled to reach this -- the hour of our happiness.
It streches behind us as the future lies ahead, a long and winding road
whose every turning means discovery, old hopes, new laughter, and shared tears.
The adventure has just begun.
"Carnal Cerebral Love" by Denise Castellucci
Carnal Cerebral Love
I want to make love
to your mind
Stimulate me
with your intellect,
your insight and understanding.
Ignite me
with random connections
and your clever wit.
Carnal Cerebral Love
I want to make love
to your inner being.
Allow me to delight
in your orgasmic
dynamic mind.
Open up and invite me
into the deep warmth of your soul.
Carnal Cerebral Love
Let our synapses dance
entangle and connect
at the same plateau.
Complete each others sentences,
not our lives.
Carnal Cerebral Love
Our physical being
Our external egos
decay daily and by the moment
only our inner selves intact
The essentials of life
which are often ignored
are honored here.
from the I Ching
When two people are at one
in their inmost hearts,
they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other
in their inmost hearts,
their words are sweet and strong,
like the fragrance of orchids.
by Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
What is well planted will not be torn up.
What is well kept will not escape.
Whosoever leaves their memory to their children will not fade away.
Whosoever moulds their person, their life becomes true.
Whosoever moulds their family, their life becomes complete.
Whosoever moulds their community, their life will grow.
A Chinese poem
I want to be your friend forever and ever
When the hills are all flat
and the rivers run dry
When the trees blossom in winter
and the snow falls in summer,
when heaven and earth mix -
not till then will I part from you.
by e.e. cummings
if i have made, my lady, intricate
imperfect various things chiefly which wrong
your eyes (frailer than most deep dreams are frail)
songs less firm than your body's whitest song
upon my mind - if I have failed to snare
the glance too shy - if through my singing slips
the very skillful strangeness of your smile
the keen primeval silence of your hair
- let the world say "his most wise music stole
nothing from death" -
you only will create
(who are so perfectly alive) my shame:
lady through whose profound and fragile lips
the sweet small clumsy feet of April came
into the ragged meadow of my soul.
"Eskimo Love Song"
You are my husband/wife
My feet shall run because of you
My feet dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love because of you
"Ezra Pound" from The Cantos
What thou lovest well remains,
the rest is dross.
What thou lov'st well shall not be
reft from thee.
What thou lov'st well is thy true
heritage. . . .
"I Knew That I Had Been Touched By Love," author unknown
I knew that I had been touched by love the first time I saw you,
and I felt your warmth, and I heard your laughter.
I knew that I had been touched by love
when I was hurting from something that happened,
and you came along and made the hurt go away.
I knew that I had been touched by love
when I quit making plans with my friends,
and started dreaming dreams with you.
I knew that I had been touched by love
when suddenly I stopped thinking in terms of "me",
and started thinking in terms of "we".
I knew that I had been touched by love
when suddenly I couldn't make any decisions by myself anymore,
and I had the strong desire to share everything with you.
I knew that I had been touched by love
the first time we spent alone together,
and I knew I wanted to stay with you forever
because I had never felt this touched by love.
"I Was Born to Speak Your Name" by Tom Clark
I knew the tune
It was my song
Even before you came along
Yet only then did I perceive its meaning
This _you_ I wished for
This desired Other of whom
I spoke so glowingly in poems
I never knew its name
When I lifted its arms up
I noticed tiny wings
That's all I knew
The rest was Muselike
Anonymous this "you"
So I guess those poems
Were like phone calls to the future
I think I had your number
Knew what I was looking for
Even before I found it
In the face directory
And luckiest of all
Your human substance
Was life's loveliest
Far as I could see
As if I'd placed
Bones and skin
Together in a dream
You were put together that way
But I wouldn't let it go to my head if I were you
An Irish Blessing
May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.
"Look to This Day" from the Sanskrit
Look to this day!
For it is life,
The very life of life ...
For yesterday is only a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision
But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope!
"Love's Philosophy" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Fountains mingle with the Rivers
And the Rivers with the Oceans,
The winds of Heaven mix forever
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 waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother,
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
from "Lullaby" by W. H. Auden
Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's sensual ecstasy.
Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell,
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.
Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of sweetness show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find the mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness see you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.
"Marriage Morning" by 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 thorns and briers,
Over the meadows and stiles,
Over the world to the end of it
Flash for a million miles.
"Married Love" by Kuan Tao-sheng (1263-1319)
translation #1:
You and I have so much love
That it burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
The we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
You are in my clay.
In life we share a single quilt,
In death we will share one bed.
translation #1:
Take a lump of clay, wet it, pat it,
And make an image of me, and an image of you.
Then smash them, crash them, and add a little water.
Break them and remake them into an image of you
And an image of me.
Then in my clay, there's a little of you.
And in your clay, there's a little of me.
And nothing ever shall us sever;
Living, we'll sleep in the same quilt,
And dead, we'll be buried together.
"Most Like an Arch This Marriage" by John Ciardi (adapted)
Most like an arch--an entrance which upholds
and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.
Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.
Most like an arch--two weaknesses that lean
into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyances become a term
naming the fact that teaches fact to mean.
Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
what's strong and separate falters. All you do
at piling stone on stone apart from one another
is roofless around nothing. Till you kiss
you are no more than upright and unset.
It is by falling in and in you make
the all-bearing point, for one another's sake,
in faultless failing, raised by your own weight.
"On Friendship" by Roy Croft
I love you, not for what you are, but what I am, when I am with you.
I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but what you
are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped up heart and passing
over all the frivolous and weak things that you cannot help seeing
there, and drawing out into the light all the beautiful and radiant
things that no one else has looked quite far enough to find.
I love you for ignoring the possibilities of the fool in me, and for
laying hold of the possibilities of good in me.
I love you for closing your eyes to the discords in me, and adding
to the music in me by worshipful listening...
You have done it without a touch, without a sign. You have done it
by being yourself.
From the song Once Again by Molly and the Tinker
In your touch I find security
In your kiss a healing peace
In your laugh is my serenity
your embrace is my release
Though the madness swirls around us
You are safety in the storm.
Though the world is cold
Your love is evermore.
from the song On Your Shore by Enya
Strange how my heart beats
To find myself upon your shore.
Strange how I still feel
My loss of comfort go before.
Cool waves wash over
And drift away with dreams of youth.
So time is stolen;
I cannot hold you long enough.
And so this is where I should be now.
Days and nights falling by
Days and nights falling by me.
I know of a dream I should be holding.
Days and nights falling by
Days and nights falling by me.
Soft blue horizons
Reach far into my childhood days.
As you are rising
To bring me my forgotten ways.
Strange how I faltered
To find I was standing in deep water.
Strange how my heart beats
To find I'm standing on your shore.
"O Tell Me the Truth About Love" by W.H. Auden
Some say love's a little boy,
And some say it's a bird,
Some say it makes the world go around,
Some say that's absurd,
And when I asked the man next-door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very cross indeed,
And said it wouldn't do.
Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does its odour remind one of llamas,
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is,
Or soft as eiderdown fluff?
Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?
O tell me the truth about love.
Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes,
It's quite a common topic on
The Transatlantic boats;
I've found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides,
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides.
Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian,
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway Grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like Classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love.
I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn't over there;
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead,
And Brighton's bracing air.
I don't know what the blackbird sang,
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn't in the chicken-run,
Or underneath the bed.
Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races,
or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think Patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love.
When it comes, will it come without warning
Just as I'm picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning,
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love.
"On Your Shore" by Enya
Strange how my heart beats
To find myself upon your shore.
Strange how I still feel
My loss of comfort gone before.
Cool waves wash over
And drift away with dreams of youth.
So time is stolen;
I cannot hold you long enough.
And so this is where I should be now,
Days and nights falling by,
Days and nights falling by me.
I know of a dream I should be holding
Days and nights falling by,
Days and nights falling by me.
Soft blue horizons
Reach far into my childhood days
As you are rising
To bring me my forgotten ways.
Strange how I faltered
To find I'm standing in deep water.
Strange how my heart beats
To find I'm standing on your shore.
Poem by Thomas Lovell Beddoes
How many times do I love thee, dear?
Tell me how many thoughts there be
In the atmosphere
Of a newfallen year,
Whose white and sable hours appear
The latest flake of Eternity:
So many times do I love thee, dear.
How many times do I love, again?
Tell me how many beads there are
In a silver chain
Of the evening rain,
Unraveled from the tumbling main,
And threading the eye of a yellow star:
So many tiems do I love, again.
Poem by Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper
My love and I took hands and swore
Against the world, to be
Poets and lovers evermore.
Poem by Robert Browning
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which
the first was made:
Our times are in his hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God:
see all, nor be afraid!"
Poem by Barbara Burrow
All things are ours because we love
the earth below, the sky above,
the mountains, meadow, sand, and sea.
All things surounding you and me
are but a sweet reflection of
the gentle wonder of our love.
Poem by Roy Croft (seems to be a variation of "On Friendship")
I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can1t help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the tumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But asong
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps th*at is what
Being a friend means,
After all.
Poem by e.e. cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Poem by John Dryden
Pains of love be sweeter far
Than all other pleasures are.
Poem by George Eliot
What greater thing is there for
two human souls than to feel that
they are joined . . . to strengthen
each other . . . to be at one with
each other in silent unspeakable memories.
Poem on Happiness (title,author unknown)
Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good
marriage must be created. In the art of marriage the little things are the big things....
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once each day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship shouldn't
end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives; it is
standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have the
wings of an angel. It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is finding room for things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal,
the dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner..........
Poem by Robert Herrick
Thou art my life, my love,
My heart, the very eyes of me,
And hast command of every part
To live and die for thee.
Poem by Soren Asbye Hierkegaard
Marriage is the most
beautiful form
of human happiness.
Poem by Reginald Holmes
I've never known a spring like this before,
Though I have seen so many come and go.
The violets show in lovely purple clusters
And every cherry branch like drifts of snow.
The yellow jonquils nod to passing strangers,
While lilacs fill the air with sweet perfume;
The tulip bulbs that slept have now awakened
And line the walk with dazzling crimson bloom.
Other springs I had not viewed your loveliness,
Or thought that you were more than passing fair;
But now, with bridal wreath in bloom beside you
And stray, white petals nestling in your hair,
Like songbirds on the wing, my spirits soar;
I've never known a spring like this before.
Poem by D.H. Lawrence
Man and woman are like the earth, that brings forth flowers
in summer, and love, but underneath is rock.
Older than flowers, older than ferns, older than foraminiferae,
older than plasm altogether is the soul underneath.
And when, throughout all the wild chaos of love
slowly a gem forms, in the ancient, once-more-molten rocks
of two human hearts, two ancient rocks,
a man's heart and a woman's,
that is the crystal of peace, the slow hard jewel of trust,
the sapphire of fidelity.
The gem of mutual peace emerging from the wild chaos of love.
Poem by Paul L'Herrou
The hand which you each offer to the other
is an extension of yourselves;
just as is the warmth and love
which you express to each other.
Cherish the touch,
for you are touching another life.
Be sensitive to its pulse,
and try to understand and respect its flow and rhythm,
just as you do your own
Poem by Martin Luther
There is no more lovely,
friendly, and charming relationship,
communion, or company
than a good marriage.
Poem by Terry Matz
Every heart is unique
so separate from the rest
and yet how beautiful
when they blend together
in peace and love...
their differences not disappearing,
but adding to the beauty
of their song
Poem by Thomas Moore
Oh, no -- not ev'n when first we lov'd
Wert thou as dear as now thou art;
Thy beauty then my senses move'd
But now thy virtues bind my heart.
What was but Passion's sigh before
Has since been turn'd to Reason's vow;
And, though I then might love thee more,
Trust me, I love thee better now.
Although my heart in earlier youth
Might kindle with more wild desire,
Believe me, it has gain'd in truth
Much more than it has lost in fire.
The flame now warms my inmost core
That then but sparkled o'ver my brow,
And though I seem'd to love thee more,
Yet, oh, I love thee better now.
Poem by Samuel Rogers
Then before all they stand, the holy vow
And ring of gold, no found illusions now,
Bind her as his. Across the threshold led,
And every tear kissed off as soon as shed,
His house she enters, there to be a light,
Shining within, when all without is night;
A guardian angel o'er his life presiding,
Doubling his pleasures and his cares dividing,
Winning him back when mingling in the throng,
Back from the world we love, alas! too long,
To fireside happiness, to hours of ease,
Blest with that charm, the certainty to please.
How oft her eyes read his, her gentle mind
To all his wishes, to all his thoughts inclined;
Still subject, ever on the watch to borrow
Mirth of his mirth and sorrow of his sorrow!
Poem by Susan Polis Schultz
You must follow the philosopy that men and women are equal
and not treat either person with inferiority in any way
You must be together always in your heart but not necessarily always in your activities
You must be proud of each other and love and not be ashamed to show your sensitive feelings
You must treat every day spent with each other ans special
and not take each other or your love for granted
You must spend time talking with each other every day and not be too busy with outside events
that you are too tired for each other
You must understand each other's moods and feelings and not hurt each other intentionally
but if your frustrations are taken out on each other you must both realize that it is not a personal attack
You must be passionate with each otehr often and not get into boring patterns
You must continue to have fun and excitement with each other and not be afraid to try new things
You must always work at love and your love relationship
and not forget how important this relationship is or what you would feel like without it
Love is the strongest and most fulfilling emotion possible
You will be living your dreams between awakenings
if you culminate your commitment to love with marriage
"Poem XIII" from Chamber Music by James Joyce
Go seek her out all courteously,
And say I come,
Wind of spices whose song is ever
Epithalamium.
O hurry over the dark lands
And run upon the sea
For seas and land shall not divide us
My love and me.
Now, wind, of your good courtesy
I pray you go,
And come into the garden
And sit at her window;
Singing: The bridal wind is blowing
For Love is at his noon;
And soon will your love be with you,
Soon, O soon.
"Proposal" by Bayard Taylor
The violet loves a sunny bank,
The cowslip loves the lea,
The scarlet creeper loves the elm;
But I love -- thee.
The sunshine kisses mount and vale,
The stars, they kiss the sea,
The westwinds kiss the clover bloom
But I kiss -- thee.
The oriole weds his mottled mate,
The lily's bride o' the bee;
Heaven's marriage ring is round the earth --
Shall I wed thee?
"Since you asked" by Judy Collins
What I'll give you since you've asked
Is all my time together
Take the ragged sunny days
The warm and rocky weather
Take the roads that I have walked along
Looking for tomorrow's time
Peace of mind.
As my life spills into yours,
Changing with the hours
Filling up the world with time
Turning time to flowers
I can show you all the songs
That I never sang to one man before.
We have seen a million stones lying by the water
You have climbed the hills with me to the mountain shelter
Taken off the days one by one
Setting them to breathe in the sun
Take the lilies and the lace
From the days of childhood
All the willow winding paths
Leading up and outward
This is what I give
This is what I ask you for
Nothing more.
"Song" by C. Day Lewis
Come, live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
Of peace and plenty, bed and board,
That chance employment may afford.
I'll handle dainties on the docks
And thou shalt read of summer frocks:
At evening by the sour canals
We'll hope to hear some madrigals.
Care on thy maiden brow shall put
A wreath of wrinkles, and thy foot
Be shod with pain: not silken dress
But toil shall tire thy loveliness.
Hunger shall make thy modest zone
And cheat fond death of all but bone --
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
a portion of "Song of the Open Road" by Walt Whitman
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love, more precious than money,
I give you myself, before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
another portion of "Song of the Open Road" by Walt Whitman
The efflux of the soul is happiness, here is happiness,
I think it pervades the open air, waiting at all times,
Now it flows unto us, we are rightly charged.
Here rises the fluid and attaching character,
The fluid and attaching character is the freshness and sweetness of man and woman,
The herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every day out of the roots of themselves,
than it sprouts fresh and sweet continually out of themselves.
"Sonnet XIV" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Sonnets from the Portuguese
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
That falls in well with mine, and brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" -
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee, - and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry, -
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayest love on, through love's eternity.
"Sonnet # 29" by Shakespeare
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless [useless] cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope [intellectual range],
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sing hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love rememb'red such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
"Sonnet #116" by Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments
Love is not love which alters when it alterations find or bends with the remover to remove
O no, it is an ever fixed mark, which looks on tempests and is never
shaken. It is the star to every wandering bark, whose worth's unknown though his height be taken.
Love is not times' fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come,
Love alters not with it's brief hours or weeks, but bears it out, even to
the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, and no man ever loved
by Shakespeare
So they lov'd as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none...
by Shakespeare
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
"Sonnet XLIII" by Elizabeth Barrett 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.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints -- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
"The Good Morrow" by John Donne
I wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seven sleepers' den?
'Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.
And now good morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room, an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest,
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
"The Newly Wedded" by Winthrop Mackworth Praed
Now the rite is duly done,
Now the word is spoken,
And the spell has made us one
Which may ne'er be broken:
Rest we, dearest, in our home,
Roam we o'er the heater,
We shall rest, and we shall roam,
Shall we not? together.
From this hour the summer rose
Sweeter breathes to charm us;
From this hour the winter snows
Lighter fall to harm us:
Fair or foul -- on land or sea --
Come the wind or weather,
Best or wrst, whate'er they be,
We shall share together.
"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.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
The live with me and be my love.
"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Delmore Schwartz
Come live with me and be my wife,
We'll seek the peaks and pits of life
And run the gauntlet of the heart
On mountains or the depths of art.
We'll do the most that thinking can
Against emotion's Ghenghis Khan.
And we will play on Hallowe'en
Like all souls on the silver screen,
Or at a masked ball ask for fun
Dancing dressed as monk and nun.
We'll ride a solemn music's boat
When humors cough in breast and throat.
When snow comes like a sailing fleet
We'll skate a ballet in the street,
Though poor as saints or rocks, immense
Our chatter's rich irreverence.
And sometimes speak of endless death
To quicken ever conscious breath.
If one becomes too serious,
The other can bring down the house
With jokes which seem hilarious
About the self's pretentious Ows.
I'll be your room-mate and your hoax,
The scapeghost of your gentle jokes.
Like Moliere's boureois gentleman,
You may discover you have been
Speaking blank verse all your life,
And hence you must become my wife.
For you will know of metaphors,
If I say aeroplanes are bores.
If these excursions seem to you
Interesting as a rendezvous,
Rich as cake and revenue,
Handsome as hope and as untrue,
And full of travel's points of view,
Vivid as red and fresh as dew,
Come live with me and try my life,
And be my night, my warmth, my wife.
"The Promise" by Robert Sexton
Across the years I will walk with you -
in deep green forests; on shores of sand:
and when our time on earth is through,
in heaven, too, you will have my hand
"Theme and Variations" by James Stephens
Bravest
That has come my way:
Loveliest
That I have seen:
Kindest, wisest, noblest-Be
Noble, wise, and kind to me...
Do you love?
Then, love are you
- No other knowledge shall avail -
To be, to know,
And so to do,
That is the truth, and all the tale:
So do, be so!
Immediately,
In each meridian and degree,
The Good, the Beautiful, the True
Is Love,
And Loving,
And is you.
...Give all thy love:
Love breeds its like always
- Sprint-time,
And the moon.
And love-
Gentle,
Unasked,
And truthful
- such is love -
Compassionate
Is love,
And love
Is fruitful.
Making all song,
Making all creatures sing:
Surpassing all,
Staying
With everything:
Astonished all,
And all
Astonishing....
More brave, more beautiful, and true
Than each one was
Is now this two....
Love!
It is to see,
And say:
You are best
Of all, I ween:...
"Tin Wedding Whistle" by Ogden Nash
Though you know it anyhow
Listen to me, darling, now,
Proving what I need not prove
How I know I love you, love.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never learnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Far and wide, far and wide,
I can walk with you beside;
Furthermore, I tell you what,
I sit and sulk where you are not.
Visitors remark my frown
When you're upstairs and I am down,
Yes, and I'm afraid I pout
When I'm indoors and you are out;
But how contentedly I view
Any room containing you.
In fact I care not where you be,
Just as long as it's with me.
In all your absences I glimpse
Fire and flood and trolls and imps.
Is your train a minute slothful?
I goad the stationmaster wrothful.
When with friends to bridge you drive
I never know if you're alive,
And when you linger late in shops
I long to telephone the cops.
Yet how worth the waiting for,
To see you coming through the door.
Somehow, I can be complacent
Never but with you adjacent.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never learnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,
To hold you in my sight forever;
Let none, not even you, disparage
Such a valid reason for a marriage.
Selection from "To Celia" by Ben Johnson
Drink to me only with thine eyes
And I will pledge with mine
Or leave a kiss
But in a cup
And I'll not look for wine
"To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet
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 is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever.
"To My Bride" by Victor Frankenstein
To my bride, I give you my heart
Sharing love each day, from the very start
To my bride, I give you my heart
Fry it up right, from the very start!
To my bride, I give you my kiss
Filling each day with joy and bliss
To my bride, I give you my kiss
Honey, you ain't seen nothing like this!
To my bride, I give you my being
To love, to play, to work and to sing
To my bride, I give you my bean
Please my dear, do nothing obscene.
To my bride, I give you my mind
Learning each day to be more kind
To my bride, I give you my mentality
Learning each day the art of venality!
To my bride, I give you my soul
Growing together to be more whole
To my bride, I give you my soul
R & B, baby will make us whole!
To my bride, I give you my life
Rejoicing each day that you are my wife
To my bride, I give you my life
Credit cards, ear wax and marital strife!
"True Love"
True love is a sacred flame
that burns eternally
and none can dim its special glow
or change its destiny
True love speaks in tender tones
and hears with gentle ear
True love gives with open heart
and true love conquers fear
True love makes no harsh demands
it neither rules nor binds
and true love holds with gentle hands
the hearts that it entwines
Quote by William Shakespeare
Doubt that the stars are fire
Doubt that the sun doth shine
Doubt truth to be a liar
But never doubt that I love
"We Become New" by Marge Piercy
How it feels to be touching you:
an Io moth, orange and yellow as pollen,
wings through the night
miles to mate,
could crumble in the hand.
Yet our meaning together
is hardy as an onion
and layered.
Goes into the blood like garlic,
Sour as rose hips,
gritty as whole grain,
fragrant as thyme honey.
When I am turning slowly
in the woven hammocks of our talk,
when I am chocolate melting into you,
I taste everything new in your mouth.
You are not my old friend.
How did I used to sit and look at you?
Now though I seem to be standing still
I am flying flying flying
in the trees of your eyes.
"When Love is Found"
When love is found and hope comes home,
Sing and be glad that two are one.
When love explodes and fills the sky,
Praise God and share our Maker's joy.
When love has flowered in trust and care,
Build both each day, that love may dare
To reach beyond home's warmth and light,
To serve and strive for truth and right.
When love is tried as loved ones change,
Still hold to hope though all seems strange,
Till ease returns and love grows wise
Through listening ears and opened eyes.
When love is torn and trust betrayed,
Pray strength to love till torments fade,
Till lovers keep no score of wrongd
But hear through pain love's Easter song.
Praise God for love, praise God for life,
In age or youth, in husband, wife.
Lift up your hearts; let love be fed
Through death and life in broken bread.
"Why Marriage?"
Because to the depths of me,
I long to love one person,
with all my heart,
my soul,
my mind,
my body . . .
Because I need a forever friend
to trust with the intimacies of me,
who won't hold them against me,
who loves me when I'm unlikable,
who sees the small child in me,
and looks for the divine potential of me . . .
Because I need to cuddle
in the warmth of the night
with someone who thanks God for me,
with someone I feel blessed to hold . . .
Because marriage means opportunity to grow
in love
in friendship . . .
Because marriage is a discipline
to be added to a list of achievements . . .
Because marriages do not fail,
people fail when they enter into marriage
expecting another to make them whole . . .
Because, knowing this, I promise myself
to take full responsibility
for my spiritual,mental and physical wholeness
I create me
I take half of the responsibility for my marriage
together we create our marriage . . .
Because with this understanding
the possibilities are limitless . . .
"Wish for a Young Wife" by Theodore Roethke
My lizard, my lively writher,
May your limbs never wither,
May the eyes in your face
Survive the green ice
Of envy's mean gaze;
May you live out your life
Without hate, without grief,
And your hair ever blaze,
In the sun, in the sun,
When I am undone,
When I am no one.
from The Magic Flute
A man who feels the pangs of loving
He will not lack a gentle heart.
The sweet emotion likewise suffering
Is womankind's first debt to man.
We shall now both in love be happy;
By love alone we'll live life through.
Sure, love doth sweeten every sorrow;
Each creature living pays its due.
At the heart of our life's journey,
At nature's root it dwells, 'tis true.
Life's high purpose shineth clearly:
Naught's nobler than a man and wife.
In man and wife, in wife and man,
'twixt earth and heav'n the gulf doth span.
(unknown author)
As each Fall,
when the trees shed their leaves...
to prepare for the next Spring's
growth and fruit...
May each year also bring closure-
shedding the spent-
and bring rebirth to the spirit of your marriage.
Look ever to the future,
for in it lies the creative power
for your own lives.
May you grow together like flowers and grass,
and may your life be a dance to the music of love.
(unknown author)
The quiet thoughts
of two people a long time in love
Touch lightly
Like birds nesting in each others warmth
You will know them by their laughter
But to each other
They speak mostly through their solitude.
If they find themselves apart
They may dream of sitting undisturbed
In each other's presence,
Of wrapping themselves warmly
In each other's ease.
(unknown author)
When our daughter
was a little girl,
We often used to say
How proud and happy
we would be
On this, her Wedding Day.
Our daughter is not
lost to us,
In fact, we've gained a son;
We're happy you can share our joy
And see them joined as One.
So may we welcome all of you
And may ths whole day be
A Happy and a Joyous one
For friends and family.
(Latin saying; taken from John Fowles' book The Magus)
cras amet qui numquam amavit
quique amavit cras amet
translated:
Let those love now, who never loved before;
Let those who always loved now love the more.
(unknown author)
May your home be filled with laughter
and the warm embrace of a summer day.
May you find peacefulness and beauty,
challenge, and satisfaction, humor and insight,
healing and renewal, love and wisdom,
as in a quiet heart.
May you always feel that what you have is enough.
Other Poems:
- "Give All to Love" by Emerson
- "Love" by Guy de Maupassant
- "Love Song" by Rilke
- "My Rules" by Shel Silverstein
- Pablo Neruda's Cien sonetos de amor (one hundred love sonnets)
- Poems by John Donne -- 17th century but men & women share equally in
a relationship. "Lover's Infiniteness" is an example (says 'give me all your love, but wait,
there's still more to come in the future, so you can never give me all your love because
there will always be more').
- Poems by William Wordsworth, Robert Browning
- "She walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron
- "Somewhere I have never travelled" by e.e. Cummings
- "Sonnet #24" by Shakespeare
[HOME] ©1995 - 2002 Leslie P. Fowler