Poetry and Readings
Religious Selection
On Love – Kahlil Gibran From The Prophet
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love,
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love´s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips.
Love is a Mighty Power From The Imitation of Christ
Thomas A Kempis
(1379 – 1471)
Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good.
Love alone lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth.
It bears every hardship as though it were nothing,
And renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable.
Nothing is sweeter than love,
Nothing stronger,
Nothing higher,
Nothing wider,
Nothing more pleasant,
Nothing fuller or better in heaven or earth; for love is born of God.
Love flies, runs and leaps for joy.
It is free and unrestrained.
Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds.
Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil,
Attempts things beyond its strength.
Love sees nothing as impossible,
For it feels able to achieve all things.
It is strange and effective, while those who lack love faint and fail.
Love is not fickle and sentimental, nor is it intent on vanities.
Like a living flame and a burning torch, it surges upward and surely surmounts every obstacle.
Traditional Selection
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
I have for the first time found what I can truly love-- I have found you.
You are my sympathy-- my better self–my good angel –
I am bound to you with a strong attachment.
I think you good, gifted, lovely:
a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart;
it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life,
wraps my existence about you –
and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.
Sonnet from the Portuguese XLIII – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806 – 1861)
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 grief´s, and with 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.
The Newly Wedded – Winthrop Mackworth Praed
(1802 – 1839)
Now the rite is duly done,
Now the word is spoken,
And the spell has made us one
Which may ne´er be broken:
Rest we, dearest, in our home,
Roam we o´er the heather,
We shall rest, and we shall roam,
Shall we not? together.
From this hour the summer rose
Sweeter breathes to charm us;
From this hour the winter snows
Lighter fall to harm us:
Fair or foul – on land or sea –
Come the wind or weather,
Best or worst, whate´er they be,
We shall share together.
The Bargain – Sir Philip Sidney
(1554 – 1586)
My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange one for another given;
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a better bargain driven:
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.
My heart in me keeps him and me 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;
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.
Romantic Selection
Voltaire
Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes in the twinkling of an eye,
but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delights of the heart,
the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish
and can never be destroyed. I shall love you until I die.
True Love – Anon
True love is a sacred flame that burns eternally
And none can dim its special glow or change its destiny
True love speaks in tender tones and hears with gentle ear
True love gives with open heart and true love conquers fear
True love makes no harsh demands it neither rules nor binds
And true love holds with gentle hands the hearts that it entwines
Give Me your Heart – Anon
Give me your heart, beloved. Give me your hand, my true friend With each passing day I grow more fond; With each passing day, our small portion of love takes its place in the truth of time. With the years that we have been given, Let us grow deeply into life so that we may love all the more.
Contemporary Selection
A Word to Husbands Ogden Nash (1902-7I)
To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.
Love is Giving - Anon
Love is giving, not taking, mending, not breaking, trusting, believing,
never deceiving, patiently bearing and faithfully sharing each joy, every sorrow, today and tomorrow.
Love is kind, understanding, but never demanding.
Love is constant, prevailing, its strength never failing.
A promise once spoken for all time unbroken,
Love's time is forever.
These I can Promise – Anon
I cannot promise you a life of sunshine;
I cannot promise riches, wealth, or gold;
I cannot promise you an easy pathway
That leads away from change or growing old.
But I can promise all my heart´s devotion;
A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow;
A hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow.
Blessings and Sayings
May your hands be forever clasped in friendship, and your hearts joined forever in love. – Anon
Any time that is not spent on love is wasted. – Tasso (1544)
If music be the food of love, play on. – Shakespeare (1564)
Brief is life but long is love. – Lord Tennyson (1809)
To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with. – Mark Twain (1835)