love poems

There was three worms on yonder hill,
They neither could not hear nor see.
I wish I'd been but one of them
When first I gained my liberty.

Then a brisk young lad came a-courting me,
He stole away my liberty.
He stole it away with a free good will,
He've a-got it now and he'll keep it still.

Oh for once I wore my apron strings low,
My love followed me through frost and snow,
But now they're almost up to my chin
My love passed by and say nothing.

Now there is an alehouse in this town

Tell me no more of minds embracing minds,
And hearts exchanged for hearts;
That spirits spirits meet, as winds do winds,
And mix their subtlest parts;
That two unbodied essences may kiss,
And then like angels, twist and feel one bliss.

I was that silly thing that once was wrought
To practise this thin love;
I climbed from sex to soul, from soul to thought;
But thinking there to move,
Headlong I rolled from thought to soul, and then
From soul I lighted at the sex again.

Though I am like Laila, yet my heart loves like Majnun. I wish to keep my head towards the desert, but modesty chains my feet down.
The nightingale came to sit in the company of the flower in the garden, because she was my pupil. I am an expert in love matters: — even the moth is our pupil.

Take it, love!
'Twill soon be over,
With the thickening of the clover,
With the calling of the plover,
Take it, take it, lover.

Take it, boy!
The blossom's falling,
And the farewell cuckoo's calling,
While the sun and showers are one,
Take your love out in the sun.

Take it, girl!
And fear no after,
Take your fill of all this laughter,
Laugh or not, the tears will fall,
Take the laughter first of all.

Sweet nymph, come to thy lover.
Lo here, alone, our loves we may discover,
Where the sweet nightingale with wanton gloses,
Hark, her love too discloses.

Sweet love has twined his fingers in my hair,
And laid his hand across my wondering eyes.
— — I cannot move save in the narrow space
— — Of his strong arms' embrace,
Nor see but only in my own heart where
His image lies.
How can I tell,
— — Emprisoned so well,
If in the outer world be sunset or sunrise?
Sweet Love has laid his hand across my eyes.

Sweet Love has loosed his fingers from my hair,
His lifted hand has left my eyelids wet.
I cannot move save to pursue his fleet
— — And unreturning feet,

Strange , all-absorbing Love, who gatherest
Unto Thy glowing all my pleasant dew,
Then delicately my garden waterest,
Drawing the old, to pour it back anew:

In the dim glitter of the dawning hours
" Not so," I said, " but still these drops of light,
" Heart-shrined among the petals of my flowers,
" Shall hold the memory of the starry night

" So fresh, no need of showers shall there be." —
Ah, senseless gardener! must it come to pass
That neath the glaring noon thou shouldest see

I.

The stars are with the voyager
Wherever he may sail;
The moon is constant to her time;
The sun will never fail;
But follow, follow round the world,
The green earth and the sea;
So love is with the lover's heart,
Wherever he may be.

II.

Wherever he may be, the stars
Must daily lose their light;
The moon will veil her in the shade;
The sun will set at night.
The sun may set, but constant love
Will shine when he's away;
So that dull night is never night,

Song is so old,
— Love is so new —
Let me be still
— And kneel to you.

Let me be still
— And breathe no word,
Save what my warm blood
— Sings unheard.

Let my warm blood
— Sing low of you —
Song is so fair,
— Love is so new!

So you're going a-
way Because your heart has gone astray,
And you promised me That you would
always faithful be. Go
to him you love, And be as true as stars a-
bove; But your heart will yearn,
And then some day you will return.
When the dew-drops
fall, 'Tis then your heart, I know, will call.
So be ware, my dove, Don't trust your
life to some false love. But
if you must go, Remember, dear, I love you
so, Sure as stars do shine,
You'll think of when I called you mine.