For Kendra*
+++++
If questioning would make us wise
Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
At last, when all the summer shine
Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade,
O, hurry, where by water, among the trees
The fountains mingle with the river,
If ever two were one, then surely we.
I love thee as I love the calm
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Light, so low upon the earth
Since there's not help, come let us kiss and part;
And in Life's noisiest hour
We shall be notes in that great Symphony
Touched by all that love is
If ever two were one, then surely we.
There where the waves shatter on the restless rocks
Love seeketh not itself to please
Come to me in my dreams, and then
I arise from dreams of thee.
All day long I have been working
When I have fears that I may cease to be.
Bid me to live, and I will live
If ever two were one, then surely we.
The wondrous moment of our meeting ...
It was many and many a year ago
I ne'er was struck before that hour
Passing stranger! you do not know
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
A glimpse through an interstice caught,
If ever two were one, then surely we.
There where the waves shatter on the restless rocks
If ever two were one, then surely we.
Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
At last, when all the summer shine
Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade,
O, hurry, where by water, among the trees
The fountains mingle with the river,
If ever two were one, then surely we.
I love thee as I love the calm
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Light, so low upon the earth
Since there's not help, come let us kiss and part;
And in Life's noisiest hour
We shall be notes in that great Symphony
Touched by all that love is
If ever two were one, then surely we.
There where the waves shatter on the restless rocks
Love seeketh not itself to please
Come to me in my dreams, and then
I arise from dreams of thee.
All day long I have been working
When I have fears that I may cease to be.
Bid me to live, and I will live
If ever two were one, then surely we.
The wondrous moment of our meeting ...
It was many and many a year ago
I ne'er was struck before that hour
Passing stranger! you do not know
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
A glimpse through an interstice caught,
If ever two were one, then surely we.
There where the waves shatter on the restless rocks
If ever two were one, then surely we.
-----
*I composed this poem for my beautiful wife, but "composed" it by cobbling it together from thirty different first lines of thirty of the most romantic poems in the English language. I thought this exercise would be unique.