romantic poems

Love that is alone with love
Makes solitudes of throngs;
Then why not songs of silences, —
Sweet silences of songs?

Parts need words: the perfect whole
Is silent as the dead;
When I offered you my soul
Heard you what I said ?

Love is like the wild rose-briar,
Friendship like the holly tree--
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms
But which will bloom most constantly?

The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring,
Its summer blossoms scent the air;
Yet wait till winter comes again
And who will call the wild-briar fair?

Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now
And deck thee with the holly's sheen,
That when December blights thy brow
He still may leave thy garland green.

Love is cruel, Love is sweet,
Cruel sweet!
Lovers sigh till lovers meet,
Sigh and meet.
Sigh and meet and sigh again,
Cruel sweet! O sweetest pain!

Love is blind, but Love is shy,
Blind and shy;
Thoughts are bold but words are shy,
Bold and shy.
Bold and shy and bold again,
Sweet is boldness, shyness, pain.

Love is begot by Fancy, bred
By Ignorance, by Expectation fed,
Destroy'd by Knowledge, and at best
Lost in the moment 't is possest.

Love equals swift and slow
— — And high and low —
Racer and lame —
— — The hunter and his game.

Lord, who am I to teach the way
To little children day by day,
So prone myself to go astray?

I teach them KNOWLEDGE, but I know
How faint they flicker and how low
The candles of my knowledge glow.

I teach them POWER to will and do,
But only now to learn anew
My own great weakness through and through.

I teach them LOVE for all mankind
And all God's creatures, but I find
My love comes lagging far behind.

Lord, if their guide I still must be,
Oh, let the little children see

VERSE

I've been married and married,
And often I've sighed,
I'm never a bridesmaid,
I'm always the bride.
I never divorced them —
I hadn't the heart.
Yet remember these sweet words
" Till death do us part. "

REFRAIN 1

I married many men,
A ton of them,
And yet I was untrue to none of them
Because I bumped off ev'ry one of them
To keep my love alive.
Sir Paul was frail;
He looked a wreck to me.
At night he was a horse's neck to me.

Beloved , in the noisy city here,
The thought of thee can make all turmoil cease;
Around my spirit, folds thy spirit clear
Its still, soft arms, and circles it with peace;
There is no room for any doubt or fear
In souls so overfilled with love's increase,
There is no memory of the bygone year
But growth in heart's and spirit's perfect ease:
How hath our love, half nebulous at first,
Rounded itself into a full-orbed sun!
How have our lives and wills (as haply erst
They were, ere this forgetfulness begun)

VERSE

Here's to my best romance,
Here's to my worst romance,
Here's to my first romance
Ages ago.
Here's to the girls I've kissed,
And to complete the list,
Here's to the girls who said " No! "

REFRAIN 1

Love! love! Hooray for love!
Who is ever too blase for love?
Make this a night for love.
If we have to fight let's fight for love.
Some sigh and cry for love.
Ah, but in Paree they die for love.
Some waste away for love.

Living for you is easy living,
It's easy to live when you're in love,
And I'm so in love there's nothing in life but you.
I never regret the years I'm giving,
They're easy to give when you're in love.
I'm happy to do whatever I do for you,
For you.
Maybe I'm a fool, but it's fun.
People say you rule me with one
Wave of your hand,
Darling, it's grand,
They just don't understand.
Living for you is easy living,
It's easy to live when you're in love,
And I'm so in love there's nothing in life but you.