Classic Poetry Two

Sonnet 116

Shakespeare asserts that if love is true, it never falters.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no ! It is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempest and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, through rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error, and upon me prov'd,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

~ William Shakespeare ~

from A Death In The Desert

The essence of life and truth is to learn what real love is.

For life, with all its yields of joy and woe,

And hope and fear -- believe the aged friend --

Is just the chance o' the prize of learning love,

How love might be, hath been indeed, and is;

And that we hold henceforth to the uttermost

Such prize despite the envy of the world,

And, having gained truth, keep truth: that is all.

~ Robert Browning ~

from Sonnet From The Portuguese

This poem, written the year before this poet's marriage to Robert Browning, is one of

the most celebrated love poems in the English language.

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 everyday'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 my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints -- I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life -- and if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning ~

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