"This Is My Love for You" 681 "I LOVE MY LIFE, BUT NOT TOO WELL" I LOVE my life, but not too well To give it to thee like a flower, I love my life, but not too well The beauty of the desolate day. I love my life, but not too well To cast it like a cloak on thine, I love my life, but not too well. Harriet Monroe [1860- [ "THIS IS MY LOVE FOR YOU", I HAVE brought the wine I will smooth your bed, Mayhap in the night, When the dark beats back the light, I shall struggle too. This is my love for you. In your dream, once more, Grace Fallow Norton [18 MY LADY'S LIPS LIPS AND EYES From "Blurt, Master Constable" LOVE for such a cherry lip Would be glad to pawn his arrows; Venus here to take a sip Would sell her doves and team of sparrows. But they shall not so; Hey nonny, nonny no! None but I this lip must owe; Did Jove see this wanton eye, Would change her face and look much younger. Hey nonny, nonny no! None but I this lip must owe; Hey nonny, nonny no! Thomas Middleton [1570?-1627] THE KISS From "Cynthia's Revels" O THAT joy so soon should waste! Or so sweet a bliss As a kiss Might not for ever last! So sugared, so melting, so soft, so delicious, The dew that lies on roses, When the morn herself discloses, Is not so precious. A Stolen Kiss O, rather than I would it smother, It should be my wishing That I might die with kissing. 683 Ben Jonson [1573?-1637] "TAKE, O TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY" TAKE, O take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn, Hide, O hide those hills of snow, The second stanza from "The Bloody Brothers," by A STOLEN KISS Now gentle sleep hath closed up those eyes From which I long the rosy breath to draw. SONG My Love bound me with a kiss I had less power to part away: Yes, she knows it but too well, For I heard when Venus' dove In her ear did softly tell That kisses were the seals of love: Wherefore did she thus inflame And starve whom she had given food? Had she bid me go at first I would ne'er have grieved my heart Hope delayed had been the worst; But ah to kiss and then to part! How deep it struck, speak, gods! you know !! Kisses make men loath to go. Unknown Robert Herrick [1591–1674] 66 A Riddle COME, CHLOE, AND GIVE ME SWEET KISSES" COME, Chloe, and give me sweet kisses, Then, prithee, my charmer, be kind, Count the bees that on Hybla are playing, To a heart full of love, let me hold thee, And twist round thy limbs like a vine. My life on thy lips shall be spent! But the wretch that can number his kisses, 685 Charles Hanbury Williams [1708-1759] A RIDDLE I AM just two and two, I am warm, I am cold, I am lawful, unlawful- -a duty, a fault— I am often sold dear, good for nothing when bought; An extraordinary boon, and a matter of course, And yielded with pleasure when taken by force. William Cowper [1731-1800] |