To Lorenzo
Go, distant shores and brighter conquests seek,
But my affection will your scorn survive!
For not from radiant eyes or crimson cheek
My fondness I, or you your power derive;--
Nor sprung the passion from your fancied love;
To me, your smiles no dear delusion caused;
I saw you tower my humble hopes above,
And, ere I loved, I shuddered, trembled, paused.
But I was formed to prize superior worth,
And felt 't was virtue you, with love, to see;
I hoped a choice so glorious might call forth
Merit like yours, Lorenzo, e'en in me.--
Then go, assured that mine's no transient flame,
For on your worth it feeds, and lives upon your fame.
poem by Amelia Opie

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Love Elegy, to Laura
Too heedless friend, why thus augment the flame
That glows resistless in my beating breast?
Why with thy praises grace his fatal name,
Who robs thy Emma's hapless heart of rest?
Why needest thou dwell on Henry's graceful ease;
Why praise the timid worth his glance reveals;
Why speak enraptured of his power to please,
Whose power to wound my aching bosom feels?
Say not, "That gentle voice was formed for love,"
Nor in his eyes such sweet expression see;
Say not, that tenderness those glances prove,
Which never fix with tenderness on me.
Too well my Henry's charms I've numbered o'er,
And thus to end the fond survey is mine:
His heart will own some brighter fair one's power;
Think not, lost Emma, he can e'er be thine.
Yet why despair? Though Beauty's boasted rose
On others' cheeks in livelier colours shine,
The tender heart that in my bosom glows
The palm of fondness will to none resign.
Though brighter radiance beams in others' eyes,
By shape, by colour formed the soul to steal;
If Love's expression Henry's heart can prize,
Then, Henry's heart the power of mine must feel.
Yet vain the hope: "Fond maid, thy love suppress,"
Calm Reason cries; "go, learn to check the sigh:
But, if resolved to love in rash excess,
Seek out some lonely shade, despair, and die!"
Then, Laura, bid to Henry's praise farewel!
Forget his merit, and my hopeless flame;
On the dear theme no more ill-judging dwell,
And from thy memory blot his fatal name.
But if I urge this plaintive prayer in vain,
Bid execrations on that name attend;
And him, my Laura, view with cold disdain,
Who sees unmoved the sorrows of thy friend.
Say, such the scorn, the pride of Henry's breast,
It cannot Love's endearing softness share,
Say, vice degrades....Hold! slight my wild request,
Nor by such calumny my fury dare.
No....from my frantic wishes still appeal,
Declare that Henry is from error free;
Or the keen hate for him I bade thee feel,
My wayward heart will learn to feel for thee.
poem by Amelia Opie

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What A Journey
What a journey this has been
This journey that leads me to you
It has been full of twists and turns
And has lead me to the purest prize
That, my dear, is you
Oh what a prize it is to have
You, a beautiful goddess from heaven
Surely it is the grandest prize of all
Surely it is worth more than gold
Worth more than anything
This journey thankfully
Has brought me to you
It has been worth every second pain
Only if you accept my love for you
And let this journey take us away
To a life of love so pure
Oh what a journey that would be
If we were in love
Together and made a journey of our own
poem by Alex Fischer

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Without passion
I think and thought
i hoped and wished
i cried and mourned
i yelled and laughed
i screamed in excitement
then i realised it was passion.
Passion is strong
it is intense
it is a great feelin of emotion
love, hate, desire, enthusiasm, fondness, zeal, affection and ardor.
A man without passion is like a man without life.
Yes, i pride in myself, i have life because
i have passion,
i know love
i show affection
i know what it is to be fond of
i can give warmth
i am full of ardor.
Just when i was begining to be exalted by my feelings you came into my life,
i found you in my soul
then i knew what i claimed was passion, was nothing compared to what you gave me.
I came to realise that passion wasn't anything else but a woman.And not just any woman, it was you.
Then i remembered 'a man without passion is a man without life.Without you i'm incomplete, without passion i have no life
Now i can boast of passion of love of life.
Because i have you.
Lines On The Tomb Of A Favorite Dog
HERE rests the image of a friend,-
Thine, cherish'd BIBI , thine!
Oft to this spot our steps we'll bend,
And call it Friendship's shrine.
Through length'ning years' successive flight
Thy fondness still had power
To shed its narrow line of light
On life's domestic hour;
And while for pleasures sought amiss
Abroad we vainly roam,
How far more dear the slightest bliss
That adds one charm to home!
Let those who coldly scorn the tear
That soothes the grief we prove,
Say, if fidelity be dear,
If love has claims to love;
Say, on what hallow'd spot there lives
A heart unknown to range,
That to one chosen object gives
A love no power can change?
Tell, in what tender breast to find
Affection half so true?-
Ah, BIBI, who of human kind
Has learnt to love like you!
poem by Helen Maria Williams

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A life is
Seek the radiance of God
To share tenderness of love,
Seek the radiance of love
To share feelings of fondness,
Seek the radiance of faith
To share compassion of peace,
Seek the radiance of Peace
To share the ultimate of passion
Seek the glowing path of passion
To discover a source for salvation;
Once you tread the ‘path of trust’
You are bound to experience
The real worth of what, "A Life Is".
poem by Dr. Ashok T Chakravarthy (November 2016)

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Ode. Supposed To Be Written On The Marriage Of A Friend
Thou magic lyre, whose fascinating sound
Seduced the savage monsters from their cave,
Drew rocks and trees, and forms uncouth around,
And bade wild Hebrus hush his listening wave;
No more thy undulating warblings flow
O'er Thracian wilds of everlasting snow!
Awake to sweeter sounds, thou magic lyre,
And paint a lover's bliss -- a lover's pain!
Far nobler triumphs now thy notes inspire,
For see, Eurydice attends thy strain;
Her smile, a prize beyond the conjuror's aim,
Superior to the cancelled breath of fame.
From her sweet brow to chase the gloom of care,
To check the tear that dims the beaming eye,
To bid her heart the rising sigh forbear,
And flush her orient cheek with brighter joy,
In that dear breast soft sympathy to move,
And touch the springs of rapture and of love.
Ah me! how long bewildered and astray,
Lost and benighted, did my footsteps rove,
Till sent by heaven to cheer my pathless ray,
A star arose -- the radiant star of love.
The God propitious joined our willing hands,
And Hymen wreathed us in his rosy bands.
Yet not the beaming eye, or placid brow,
Or golden tresses, hid the subtle dart;
To charms superior far than those I bow,
And nobler worth enslaves my vanquished heart;
The beauty, elegance, and grace combined,
Which beam transcendent from that angel mind.
While vulgar passions, meteors of a day,
Expire before the chilling blasts of age,
Our holy flame with pure and steady ray,
Its glooms shall brighten, and its pangs assuage;
By virtue (sacred vestal) fed, shall shine,
And warm our fainting souls with energy divine.
poem by William Cowper

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The Power Of Love
I think that somewhere along the line
(and it's said, all things return to you in time)
I must have finally opened up to your love
Though i was building a wall at heaven's gate
(everything comes to those who wait)
You must have found a secret path into my soul
And now you're part of my life
I can't believe that this is mine
Every light has its time to shine
I want to understand this change in me
Is it the power of love
Is it the power of love
Is this the tao of love
I feel the power of love
Caught up in the famous paper chase
(in your eyes, i saw how i never fell from grace)
I must have finally opened up to your love
And i heard the battle's not always to the strong
(the race is not always to the fleet)
And the one who seeks to pluck the stars
Will miss the jewels at his feet
Blinded by momentary power
We almost had the final hour
I'll never know what caused the change in me
Was it the power of love
Is it the power of love
Is this the tao of love
I feel the power of love
Is it the power of love
Is it the power of love
Is this the tao of love
I feel the power of love
And i thought anything for the cause is worth the price
(losing you was the sharp edge of the knife)
Now no more fear, the way is clear
I know you are the power in my life
So better late than never
'cause this heart is yours forever
I'll never know what caused the change in me
Was it the power of love
Is it the power of love
Is this the tao of love
I feel the power of love
Is it the power of love
Is it the power of love
Is this the tao of love
I feel the power of love
I think that somewhere along the line
(and it's said all things return to you in time)
I must have finally opened up to your love
song performed by by Rick Springfield

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Not Suicide
I've been hurt and I've felt deep pain
But suicide wasn't ever my gain
To think that someone has no other choice
Please know I care, let me be your voice
I've been pretty down and very low
Thought about it myself, would be such a blow
To people who I loved and people who care
They would blame themselves, think they caused their share
You're hurting now over some lost love
Find your self another, that you can be proud of
I can't see the future, I'm only human I know
But killing yourself is no way to go
They are not worth you feeling so sad
Continue your life and you will be glad
Maybe they really aren't worth your time
Out of the darkness you will climb
Never love another more than yourself
Or you'll find yourself sitting on a lonely shelf!
poem by Donna Nimmo

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Eyes That See In The Dark
Youre not meant to be alone
Ill share your dream
Ill show you love youve never known
Two flames together in the deep of the night
Im up in your love
Close by you when you call
Ill take my stand
One chance to make or lost it all
This time my journey to wherever you are
I sail on your river so far my love well never be found
If you believe
We got eyes that see in the dark
And the power of love lives for making you mine
And in the light of close investigation
Is it only my imagination
I got you
Moonlight shining on your face
My bridges burned
With all my tears that you replaced
Two hearts together is a beautiful sight
Ill take you to heaven so far my love will follow you there
If we believe
We got eyes that see in the dark
And the power of love lives for making you mine
Am I the light of someone you need more of
Let me be that love you can be sure of
Is it only my imagination
I got you
Like the eagle that flies in the sun
Ill be lost in your fire before we are done
And the view from my window is brighter
Born to be all you need
We got eyes that see in the dark
And the power of love lives for making you mine
Am I the light of someone you need more of
Let me be that love you can be sure of
Is it only my imagination
I got you
song performed by by Bee Gees

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Happy Family Life
When a man showers love and affection
- FONDNESS - to his wife;
And shares food with needy and relatives
- VIRTUE -
Fondness results in quality
- CHARACTER -
Virtue yields the
- FRUIT- to a Happy family life.
poem by V.K. Kanniappan

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Sonnet 19
let fame be exchange of the masses
and power be sought by ambitious few.
love recognizes only souls and asks us
to divert energies to its intent and view.
time and circumstance thieve fame away.
changing fortune's inconstant as wind.
all things but this to time fall prey-
in love does fortune eternal store find.
not pages for the unloving ear to digest-
your story is chapters written in despair-
neither fame nor power may gain conquest;
humble and simple, love finds access there.
your eyes' rhetoric conquests earth's might!
reflected in that glass is love's true Light!
poem by Doug Bentley

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Long Plighted
Is it worth while, dear, now,
To call for bells, and sally forth arrayed
For marriage-rites -- discussed, decried, delayed
So many years?
Is it worth while, dear, now,
To stir desire for old fond purposings,
By feints that Time still serves for dallyings,
Though quittance nears?
Is it worth while, dear, when
The day being so far spent, so low the sun,
The undone thing will soon be as the done,
And smiles as tears?
Is it worth while, dear, when
Our cheeks are worn, our early brown is gray;
When, meet or part we, none says yea or nay,
Or heeds, or cares?
Is it worth while, dear, since
We still can climb old Yell'ham's wooded mounds
Together, as each season steals its rounds
And disappears?
Is it worth while, dear, since
As mates in Mellstock churchyard we can lie,
Till the last crash of all things low and high
Shall end the spheres?
poem by Thomas Hardy

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Give me love
Appreciate me for every diamond i'm worth
Never take me for granted or leave me in dirt
Cherish me as i love you
Give me the love love that i give you
Give me love please i beg of you
But not the love for a beggars soul
Give me love that is pure and true
Give me love of more worth than gold
I ask you for love that never grows old
I ask for love that never grows cold
That time cannot kill and words cannot low
I ask for love that can never be broken
That can withstand the world and any of its burdens
Please give me love that no eye has ever witnessed
Or love that no lips have ever spoken
Give me love that the world cannot tear
That can be ganged by darkness and never fear
Love that has more value than this earth
Love more valuable than any worth
For this is the love i give to you
So value me as i value you
Cause if i have no worth to you
Than what worth are you to me?
So please i beg of you my love
Give me the love that i give to you
I cannot love and never be loved
No...
I cannot be a diamond valued with rocks
When value more than this earth alone
But if you cannot return this love
And i have no more value than a rock
Than i shall value you too as so
And spare my heart the sorrow
Fore as i shall never know your love
Is as you shall never know mine.
poem by Hafeni Nghidinua

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To The Rev. William Cawthorne Unwin
Unwin, I should but ill repay
The kindness of a friend,
Whose worth deserves as warm a lay
As ever friendship penned,
Thy name omitted in a page
That would reclaim a vicious age.
An union formed, as mine with thee,
Not rashly or in sport,
May be as fervent in degree,
And faithful in its sort,
And may as rich in comfort prove,
As that of true fraternal love.
The bud inserted in the rind,
The bud of peach or rose,
Adorns, though differing in its kind,
The stock whereon it grows
With flower as sweet or full as fair
As if produced by nature there.
Not rich, I render what I may,
I seize thy name in haste,
And place it in this first essay,
Lest this should prove the last.
'Tis where it should be, in a plan
That holds in view the good of man.
The poet's lyre, to fix his fame,
Should be the poet's heart;
Affection lights a brighter flame
Than ever blazed by art.
No muses on these lines attend
I sink the poet in the friend.
poem by William Cowper

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Mother's Day
In the long run
the boy will be worth
all the misery
I've caused you,
all the grief.
If only for his smile,
yours, I know.
If only for his eyes,
mine, I know.
But his eyes,
they have your smile,
brighter than a rainbow,
streaming through them.
poem by Donal Mahoney

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The Vanity of Wealth
No more thus brooding o'er yon heap,
With avarice painful vigils keep:
Still unenjoy'd the present store,
Still endless sighs are breathed for more.
O! quit the shadow, catch the prize,
Which not all India's treasure buys!
To purchase with heaven has gold the power?
Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life can love be bought with gold?
Are friendship's pleasures to be sold?
No! - all that's worth a wish - a thought,
Fair virtue gives unbribed, unbought,
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind,
Let noble views engage thy mind.
With science tread the wondrous way,
Or learn the Muses' moral lay;
In social hours indulge thy soul,
Where mirth and temperance mix the bowl;
To virtuous love resign thy breast,
And be, by blessing beauty, - bless'd.
Thus taste the feast by Nature spread,
Ere youth and all its joys are fled;
Come taste with me the balm of life,
Secure from pomp, and wealth, and strife.
I boast whate'er for man was meant,
In health, and Stella, and content;
And scorn! (oh! let that scorn be thine!)
Mere things of clay, that dig the mine.
poem by Samuel Johnson

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A Dream
I dreamed
A dream of you,
Not as you seemed
When you were late unkind
And blind
To my eyes' pleading for a debt long due,
But touched and true
And all inclined
To tenderest fancies on love's inmost theme.
How sweet you were to me and ah, how kind
In that dear dream!
I felt
Your lips on mine
Mingle and melt,
And your cheek touch my cheek.
I, weak
With vain desires and askings for a sign
Of love divine,
Found my grief break,
And wept and wept in an unending stream
Of sudden joy set free, yet could not speak,
Dumb in my dream.
I knew
You loved me then,
And I knew too
The bliss of souls in Heaven
New--shriven,
Who look with pity on still sinning men,
And turn again
To be forgiven
In the dear arms of their God holding them,
And spend themselves in praise from morn till even
Nor break their dream.
I woke
In my mid bliss,
At midnight's stroke,
And knew you lost and gone.
Forlorn
I called you back to my unfinished kiss,
But only this
One word of scorn
You answered me, ``'Twas better loved to seem
Than loved to be, since all love is forsworn,
Always a dream.''
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

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Remembrance
How dear to me the twilight hour!
It breathes, it speaks of pleasures past;
When Laura sought this humble bower,
And o'er it courtly splendours cast.
Fond fancy's friend, dim twilight, hail!
Thou canst the absent nymph restore;
And as around thy shadows sail,
They bring the form I still adore.
Again her pensive smile I view,
Her modest eye's soft chastened fire;
And mark her cheek of tender hue
From thee a softer tint acquire.
No eye but mine in that dim hour
The softly blushing maid could see;
And then her voice of magic power
Charmed with its sweetness none but me.
But now, alas! to distant plains,
To crowded scenes, perhaps, she flies;
She speaks, to charm unnumbered swains;
She smiles, to bless unnumbered eyes.
Yet if, while crowds before thee bow,
Thy lips to favouring smiles incline,
Think not, sweet maid, their bosoms glow
With love as pure, as true as mine.
Reflect,....I knelt before thy feet,
Afraid to speak, or look, or move,
Nor e'en thy pity dared entreat
For hours of hopeless pining love.
They can with bold unfaltering tongue
Their loudly-boasted flame reveal;
But, Laura, spurn the heartless throng,
They talk of pangs I only feel .
From glowing cheeks, and sparkling eyes,
O turn, my Laura! turn to him
From whose sunk cheek the colour flies,
Whose eye with hopeless love is dim.
O turn to me, whose blighted youth
The wreck of former days appears!....
But well the change has proved my truth,
And thou wilt own that change endears.
Yet, no; ah, no! forget, forget
My ardent love, my faith, and me;
Remember not we ever met;
I would not cause one pang to thee.
And when I hear that thou art blest,
My own distress I'll learn to scorn;
I'll bid imperious anguish rest,
While smiles my pallid lips adorn.
Deep in my heart the load of grief,
Concealed from every glance, shall lie;
Till sorrow proves its own relief,
And I shall suffer, smile, and die.
poem by Amelia Opie

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Written For My Son
When Athens was for Arts and Arms renown'd,
Olympic Wreaths uncommon Merit crown'd.
These slight Distinctions from the Learn'd and Wise,
Convey'd eternal Honour with the Prize:
'Twas this, the gen'rous Love of Fame inspir'd,
And Grecian Breasts with noblest Ardor fir'd.
For like Rewards like Judges we implore:
Immortal Fame, with Grecian Arts, restore:
Our growing Merit with Indulgence view;
And sure you'll favour what distinguish'd you.
Leave Ignorance and Sloth to Scorn and Shame;
But crown the Worthy with immortal Fame;
And Fame, conferr'd by you, can never fail:
What Men have purchas'd, they of Right entail.
poem by Mary Barber

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Song
Why Damon, why, why, why so pressing?
The Heart you beg's not worth possessing:
Each Look, each Word, each Smile's affected,
And inward Charms are quite neglected:
Then scorn her, scorn her, foolish Swain,
And sigh no more, no more in vain.
Beauty's worthless, fading, flying;
Who would for Trifles think of dying?
Who for a Face, a Shape, wou'd languish,
And tell the Brooks, and Groves his Anguish,
Till she, till she thinks fit to prize him,
And all, and all beside despise him?
Fix, fix your Thoughts on what's inviting,
On what will never bear the slighting:
Wit and Virtue claim your Duty,
They're much more worth that Gold and Beauty:
To them, to them, your Heart resign,
And you'll no more, no more repine.
poem by Lady Mary Chudleigh

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