Love or romance in poetry or prose

To provide inspiration for those writing cards tonight...any of ye have favourite references to love or romance in poetry or prose?

Wendy Cope - Another Valentine

Today we are obliged to be romantic
And think of yet another valentine
We know the rules and we are both pedantic:
Today's the day we have to be romantic.

Our love is old and sure, not new and frantic.
You know I'm yours and you are mine.
And saying that has made me feel romantic,
My dearest love, my darling valentine.

bodice ripper

Sick with desire, and fastened to a dying animal.


Deal sealed.

johnny_tractor

oh love my love

wir sehen uns bald

The_Valeyard

And Oldie but,


Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I know where you live,
Im coming for you.

Omackeral

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I know where you live,
Im coming for you.

To wit;

Roses are red,
Violets are glorious,
Don't shut the door,
On Oscar Pistorious.

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.”

Raymond Caver

maudgonner

Not a red rose or a satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.
Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.




Also, an onion makes for a cheap & convenient Valentine's present if you forgot to buy flowers. Just sayin...

biko

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Don't tread on my dreams
Return of the Jedi

Omackeral

biko wrote: »

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Don't tread on my dreams
Return of the Jedi

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I have a gun,
Get in the van.

The_Valeyard

Omackeral wrote: »

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I have a gun,
Get in the van.

Do you have free wi-fi?

maudgonner

Roses are red
That much is true
But violets are purple
Not feckin' blue :mad:

The_Valeyard

maudgonner wrote: »

Roses are red
That much is true
But violets are purple
Not feckin' blue :mad:

They are when they hold their breath :pac:

osarusan

Shakespeare Sonnet 29:

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.



e.e.cummings:

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)



and finally, the last lines of maybe my favourite poem of all time, from Andrew Marvell:

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Dr Crayfish

And I have died a thousand deaths
And I will die a thousand more
I thought you were an angel
You turned out to be a whore

And everything is turned to dust
And everything is infected with a plague
When you had to sleep with Craig

'Oh, he's so sensitive'
'He’s got a tattoo'
Yeah, carving your name with a compass in my forehead
Was not enough for you?

osarusan

osarusan wrote: »

and finally, the last lines of maybe my favourite poem of all time, from Andrew Marvell:

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

I'd have to say my favourite poem is Yeats' "When You Are Old". And I like to think of the last stanza as a reference to love continuing when the narrator dies...

Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

But the common consensus is that it refers to unrequited love when the narrator moves on, so didn't go for it in this thread...

Sonnet 14, Elizabeth Barrett 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
That falls in well with mine, and certes 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 mayst love on, through love's eternity.

The Backwards Man

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day
In the bog clattered to the gunnels and the rain running down the crack of my arse

Samuel T. Cogley

There once was a fellow McSweeny
Who spilled some gin on his weenie
Just to be couth
He added vermouth
Then slipped his girlfriend a martini

Wibbs

Oh dear little Flo,
I love you so,
especially in your nightie.
When the moonlight flits,
across your tits,
Oh Jesus Christ Almighty.

Derek and Clive. 1976.

Mr. Incognito

Prefer lyrics personally

Suzanne
Leonard Cohen
Lyrics

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night forever
And you know that she's half-crazy but that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her
Then he gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer that you've always been her lover

And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind

And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him
He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them
But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

And you want to travel with him, and you want to travel blind
And you think you maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with her mind

Now, Suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river
She's wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor
And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love and they wil lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds her mirror

And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind

Songwriters: Leonard Cohen
Suzanne lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Yourself isit

The Cohen really doesn't measure to the Shakespeare.

I like the good morrow by Donne.

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.

darkpagandeath

Pros Gigity.

Junkyard Tom

I've always been more attuned to melancholy love/romance stuff.

When routine bites hard
And ambitions are low
And resentment rides high
But emotions won't grow
And we're changing our ways
Taking different roads

Love, love will tear us apart again
Love, love will tear us apart again

Why is the bedroom so cold?
Turned away on your side
Is my timing that flawed?
Our respect run so dry?
Yet there's still this appeal
That we've kept through our lives

But love, love will tear us apart again
Love, love will tear us apart again

Joy Division.