What poets say about love

part 8

I saw and loved.

        Gibbon—Autobiographic Memoirs. P. 48.   120

I love her doubling and anguish;

  I love the love she withholds,

I love my love that loveth her,

  And anew her being moulds.

        R. W. Gilder—The New Day. Pt. III. Song XV.   121

Love, Love, my Love.

  The best things are the truest!

When the earth lies shadowy dark below

  Oh, then the heavens are bluest!

        R. W. Gilder—The New Day. Pt. IV. Song I.   122

Not from the whole wide world I chose thee,

Sweetheart, light of the land and the sea!

The wide, wide world could not inclose thee,

For thou art the whole wide world to me.

        R. W. Gilder—Song.   123

I seek for one as fair and gay,

  But find none to remind me,

How blest the hours pass’d away

  With the girl I left behind me.

        The Girl I Left Behind Me. (1759).   124

Es ist eine der gr?ssten Himmelsgaben,

So ein lieb’ Ding im Arm zu haben.

  It is one of Heaven’s best gifts to hold such a dear creature in one’s arms.

        Goethe—Faust.   125

Und Lust und Liebe sind die Fittige zu grossen Thaten.

  Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.

        Goethe—Iphigenia auf Tauris. II. 1. 107.   126

In einem Augenblick gew?hrt die Liebe

  Was Mühe kaum in langer Zeit erreicht.

  Love grants in a moment

  What toil can hardly achieve in an age.

        Goethe—Torquato Tasso. II. 3. 76.   127

Man liebt an dem M?dchen was es ist,

Und an dem Jüngling was er ankündigt.

  Girls we love for what they are;

  Young men for what they promise to be.

        Goethe—Die Wahrheit und Dichtung. III. 14.   128

Wenn ich dich lieb habe, was geht’s dich an?

  If I love you, what business is that of yours?

        Goethe—Wilhelm Meister. IV. 9.   129

The bashful virgin’s sidelong looks of love.

        Goldsmith—The Deserted Village. L. 29.   130

Thus let me hold thee to my heart,

  And every care resign:

And we shall never, never part,

  My life—my all that’s mine!

        Goldsmith—The Hermit. St. 39.   131

As for murmurs, mother, we grumble a little now and then, to be sure; but there’s no love lost between us.

        Goldsmith—She Stoops to Conquer. Act IV. L. 255.   132

Whoe’er thou art, thy Lord and master see,

Thou wast my Slave, thou art, or thou shalt be.

        George Granville (Lord Lansdowne)—Inscription for a Figure representing the God of Love. See Genuine Works. (1732) I. 129. Version of a Greek couplet from the Greek Anthology.   133

Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes,

Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.

        Gray—The Bard. I. 3. L. 12.   134

O’er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move

The bloom of young Desire and purple light of love.

        Gray—The Progress of Poesy. I. 3. L. 16.   135

Love is a lock that linketh noble minds,

Faith is the key that shuts the spring of love.

        Robert Greene—Alcida. Verses Written under a Carving of Cupid Blowing Bladders in the Air.   136

Greensleeves was all my joy,

  Greensleeves was my delight,

Greensleeves was my heart of gold,

  And who but Lady Greensleeves?

        A new Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Greensleeves, to the new tune of “Greensleeves.” From “A Handful of Pleasant Deities.” (1584).   137

Che mai

Non v’avere ? provate, ? possedute.

                Far worse it is

  To lose than never to have tasted bliss.

        Guarini—Pastor Fido.   138

The chemist of love

  Will this perishing mould,

Were it made out of mire,

  Transmute into gold.

        Hafiz—Divan.   139

Love understands love; it needs no talk.

        F. R. Havergal—Royal Commandments. Loving Allegiance.   140

What poets say about love: part 4

Written in Very Early Youth

WRITTEN WHILE SAILING IN A BOAT AT EVENING