The Way That Lovers Use
The way that lovers use is this;
They bow, catch hands, with never a word,
And their lips meet, and they do kiss,
--So I have heard.

They queerly find some healing so,
And strange attainment in the touch;
There is a secret lovers know,
--I have read as much.

And theirs no longer joy nor smart,
Changing or ending, night or day;
But mouth to mouth, and heart on heart,
--So lovers say.
            Rupert Brooke
 

One day I wrote her name upon the strand;
But came the waves, and washed it away:
Again, I wrote it with a second hand;
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalise;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so, quoth I; let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your virtues rare shall eternalise,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
            Edmund Spenser
            1595
 

A Red, Red Rose
O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Live's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune!

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
            Robert Burns
            1759 - 1796
 

How Do I Love Thee?
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 every day'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 my breath.
Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God chose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
           Elizabeth Barrett Browning
            1806 - 1861
 

Why don't they knead two virtuous souls for life
Into that moral centaur,
Man and wife?
           Lord Byron, from Don Juan
 

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
It's loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
            John Keats, from Endymion
 

The Clod and the Pebble
"Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for Itself hath any care,
But for another gives It's ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."

So sang a little Clod of Clay
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:

"Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to It's delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."
            William Blake
 

My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange, one for the other given.
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven.
His heart in me keeps me and him in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides;
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his, because in me it bides.
His heart his wound received from my sight,
My heart was wounded from his wounded heart;
For as from me on him his hurt did light,
So still methought in me his hurt did smart.
Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss:
My true love hath my heart and I have his.
            Sir Philip Sidney
            1554 - 1586
 

Go, lovely rose,
Tell her that wastes her time and me
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Tell her that's young
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That, hadst thou sprung
In deserts where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.

Then die, that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee,
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair.
            Edmund Waller
            1606 - 1687
 

Virtues of old hold fast.
Morning's blaze cannot last;
and rose petals soon part.
Not so a steadfast heart.
 

The moment I heard my first love story I began seeking you, not realizing the search was useless. Lovers don't meet somewhere along the way. They're in one another's souls from the beginning.
            Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Persian poem
 

Take this sorrow to thy heart, and make it a part of thee, and it shall nourish thee till thou art strong again.
            Longfellow, "Hyperion"
 

What one beholds of woman is the least part of her.
            Ovid, Love's Cure (8th century)
 

I'll tell you what real love is. It is blind devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up you whole heart and soul to the smiter.
            Charles Dickens - "Great Expectations"
 

That i did always love,
I bring thee proof:
That till I loved
I did not love enough.

That I shall Love alway,
I offer thee
That love is life,
And life hath immortality.

This, doth thou doubt, sweet?
Than have I
Nothing to show
But Calvary.
            Emily Dickinson