What poets say about love
part 21
Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.
Twelfth Night. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 37. 371
She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek; she pin’d in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.
Twelfth Night. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 114. 372
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
Twelfth Night. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 167. 373
For he was more than over shoes in love.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 23. 374
Love is your master, for he masters you;
And he that is so yoked by a fool,
Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 39. 375
And writers say, as the most forward bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turn’d to folly, blasting in the bud,
Losing his verdure even in the prime.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 45. 376
How wayward is this foolish love,
That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse
And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 57. 377
O, how this spring of love resembleth
Th’ uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
And by and by a cloud takes all away!
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 84. 378
Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,
Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow,
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 18. 379
I do not seek to quench your love’s hot fire,
But qualify the fire’s extreme rage,
Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 21. 380
Except I be by Sylvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 178. 381
Love keeps his revels where there are but twain.
Venus and Adonis. L. 123. 382
What ’tis to love? how want of love tormenteth?
Venus and Adonis. L. 202. 383
When you loved me I gave you the whole sun and stars to play with. I gave you eternity in a single moment, strength of the mountains in one clasp of your arms, the volume of all the seas in one impulse of your soul. A moment only; but was it not enough? Were you not paid then for all the rest of your struggle on earth?… When I opened the gates of paradise, were you blind? Was it nothing to you? When all the stars sang in your ears and all the winds swept you the heart of heaven, were you deaf? were you dull? was I no more to you than a bone to a dog? Was it not enough? We spent eternity together; and you ask me for a little lifetime more. We possessed all the universe together; and you ask me to give you my scanty wages as well. I have given you the greatest of all things; and you ask me to give you little things. I gave you your own soul: you ask me for my body as a plaything. Was it not enough? Was it not enough?
Bernard Shaw””Getting Married. 384
The fickleness of the woman I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.
Bernard Shaw””The Philanderer. Act II. 385
Love’s Pestilence, and her slow dogs of war.
Shelley””Hellas. L. 321. 386
Yet all love is sweet
Given or returned. Common as light is love,
And its familiar voice wearies not ever
* * * * *
They who inspire it most are fortunate,
As I am now: but those who feel it most
Are happier still after long sufferings
As I shall soon become.
Shelley””Prometheus Unbound. Act II. Sc. 5. 387
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.
Sir Philip Sidney””My True Love Hath my Heart. 388
They love indeed who quake to say they love.
Sir Philip Sidney””Astrophel and Stella. LIV. 389
Priests, altars, victims, swam before my sight.
Edmund Smith””Phædra and Hippolytus. Act I. Sc. 1. 390
