The Waves of Time
Arise again, beloved, out of the waves of time
With your long golden tresses and marble arms sublime;
Your face that now transparent and pale as wax is pale
Is shaded by the shadow of sorrow's clinging veil!
Your timid smile caressing does rest within my eyes,
O star amidst fair women, o queen of starry skies;
Your head upon your shoulder its wealth of beauty lays
And in your eyes of wonder I'm lost and weeping gaze.
Out of the void's dark vapours may you once more uprear,
That to my heart I clasp you, beloved angel dear,
That I in nameless weeping above your face may bend
And on your lips forever my burning kisses spend.
While your cold hand unheeding I clasp against my breast,
Closer, yet still closer, against my bosom pressed.
Alas, not thus the darkness gives back its own again;
Now through its icy vapours I see your shadow wane.
With hanging arms and helpless once more I am alone
Before a dream unending of hours that have gone;
In vain with arms outstretching my soul your shadow craves,
Dear one, I cannot reach you amidst time's rolling waves.
poem by Mihai Eminescu
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Related quotes
Out of the waves of time [Din valurile vremii]
Out of the waves of time, come up, my love, and shine
With your white marble arms, with your hair, long and fine –
With your translucent face, which is like wax – soft, white,
Which suffers in the shade and cannot sleep at night!
You gently touch my eyes with your attractive smile,
You are a shining star, no woman has your style
And when you turn your head and watch your shoulder's skin
I look into your eyes and see the bliss within.
How can I take you out of this dark haze, my love,
To hold you to my chest, dear angel from above,
To lay my teary cheek on your exquisite face,
To choke you with my kiss and with my hot embrace,
To warm your chilly hand with the volcanic flame
Of my ecstatic heart that flutters at your name?
Alas! You're not alive, you don't seem to exist
Your shadow disappears into the cold, wet mist
And here I am again, so gloomy and so sad
Reluctantly recalling the nice dream that I had...
In vain I seek your face, in vain I want your charms
The waves of time roll by, you won't be in my arms.
poem by Mihai Eminescu, translated by Octavian Cocoş
Submitted by anonym
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Back In Your Arms Again
(from the video blood brothers)
You said once I was your treasure, and I saw your face in every store
The promises we make at night, oh thats all they are
Unless we fill them with faith and love theyre emty as a howlin wind.
Now darlin I just wanna be
Back in your arms, back in your arms again..
Back in your arms, back in your arms again.
Back in your arms, back in your arms again.
You came to me with love and kindness, but all my life Ive been a prisoner
Of my own blindness
I met you with indifference, and I dont know why.
Now I wake from my dream, I wake from my dream to this world.
Where all the shadow and darkness and a dark sky unfurls.
And all the love Ive thrown away and lost, honey Im longing for again.
Now theres nothing that I wouldnt do if I could be
Back in your arms, back in your arms again.
Back in your arms, back in your arms again.
Back in your arms, back in your arms again.
Back in your arms
(alternative firstverse)
In my dream my love was lost, I lived by luck and faith.
I carried you inside of me, and praied it wouldnt be to late.
Now Im standin on this empty road, where nothin moves but the wind...
song performed by by Bruce Springsteen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Moment In Time
there was a time i loved your face,
i loved your smile,
i loved your everything
and suddenly my world crashed in million peaces,
i hated your face, i hated your smile,
i hated your everything,
as the time passed i learned to live with it,
learned to see your face,
learned to see you smile,
yet your smile was never the same,
i know there is something missing,
that shadow over your face is something new,
but where is the shine in your eyes i used to see,
i used to love, it is not in your eyes,
that shadow stole it,
that shadow which is all over your face, what is it?
i'd like to know will i ever see a smile i loved,
or was it just a dream, a moment in time i got lost in
, and i never found way out, i tried to find it
but i know now that i'm lost forever in that short moment
, now i beg you to show me the way out
or i'll never love anyones face or any other smile
, please let me out of that prison of your eyes,
let me be free from your smile,
i need to get out i need to see the light again,
this shadows are killing me,
let me go or move the shadows away
and keep me forever locked in your smile,
in your eyes and in your heart
I Have Dreamed of You so Much
I have dreamed of you so much that you are no longer real.
Is there still time for me to reach your breathing body, to kiss your mouth and make
your dear voice come alive again?
I have dreamed of you so much that my arms, grown used to being crossed on my
chest as I hugged your shadow, would perhaps not bend to the shape of your body.
For faced with the real form of what has haunted me and governed me for so many
days and years, I would surely become a shadow.
O scales of feeling.
I have dreamed of you so much that surely there is no more time for me to wake up.
I sleep on my feet prey to all the forms of life and love, and you, the only one who
counts for me today, I can no more touch your face and lips than touch the lips and
face of some passerby.
I have dreamed of you so much, have walked so much, talked so much, slept so much
with your phantom, that perhaps the only thing left for me is to become a phantom
among phantoms, a shadow a hundred times more shadow than the shadow the
moves and goes on moving, brightly, over the sundial of your life.
poem by Robert Desnos
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Why Don't You Come?
See the swallows quit the eaves
And fall the yellow walnut leaves,
The vines with autumn frost are numb,
Why don't you come, why don't you come?
Oh, come into my arms' embrace
That I may gaze upon your face,
And lay my head in grateful rest
Against your breast, against your breast!
Do you remember when we strayed
The meadows and the secret glade,
I kissed you midst flowering thyme
How many a time, how many a time?
Some women on the earth there are
Whose eyes shine as the evening star,
But be their charm no matter what,
Like you they're not, like you they're not!
For you shine in my soul always
More softly than the starlight blaze,
More splendid than the risen sun,
Beloved one, beloved one!
But it is late in autumn now,
The leaves have fallen from the bough,
The fields are bare, the birds are dumb...
Why don't you come, why don't you come?
poem by Mihai Eminescu
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Feast Of The Assumption
Dark! Dark! Dark!
The sun is set; the day is dead:
Thy Feast has fled;
My eyes are wet with tears unshed;
I bow my head;
Where the star-fringed shadows softly sway
I bend my knee,
And, like a homesick child, I pray,
Mary, to thee.
Dark! Dark! Dark!
And, all the day -- since white-robed priest
In farthest East,
In dawn's first ray -- began the Feast,
I -- I the least --
Thy least, and last, and lowest child,
I called on thee!
Virgin! didst hear? my words were wild;
Didst think of me?
Dark! Dark! Dark!
Alas! and no! The angels bright,
With wings as white
As a dream of snow in love and light,
Flashed on thy sight;
They shone like stars around thee, Queen!
I knelt afar --
A shadow only dims the scene
Where shines a star!
Dark! Dark! Dark!
And all day long, beyond the sky,
Sweet, pure, and high,
The angel's song swept sounding by
Triumphantly;
And when such music filled thy ear,
Rose round thy throne,
How could I hope that thou wouldst hear
My far, faint moan?
Dark! Dark! Dark!
And all day long, where altars stand,
Or poor or grand,
A countless throng from every land,
With lifted hand,
Winged hymns to thee from sorrow's vale
In glad acclaim;
How couldst thou hear my lone lips wail
Thy sweet, pure name?
Dark! Dark! Dark!
Alas! and no! Thou didst not hear
Nor bend thy ear,
To prayer of woe as mine so drear;
For hearts more dear
Hid me from hearing and from sight
This bright Feast-day;
Wilt hear me, Mother, if in its night
I kneel and pray?
Dark! Dark! Dark!
The sun is set, the day is dead;
Thy Feast hath fled;
My eyes are wet with the tears I shed;
I bow my head;
Angels and altars hailed thee, Queen,
All day; ah! be
To-night what thou hast ever been --
A mother to me!
Dark! Dark! Dark!
Thy queenly crown in angels' sight
Is fair and bright;
Ah! lay it down; for, oh! to-night
Its jeweled light
Shines not as the tender love-light shines,
O Mary! mild,
In the mother's eyes, whose pure heart pines
For poor, lost child!
Dark! Dark! Dark!
Sceptre in hand, thou dost hold sway
Fore'er and aye
In angel-land; but, fair Queen! pray
Lay it away.
Let thy sceptre wave in the realms above
Where angels are;
But, Mother! fold in thine arms of love
Thy child afar!
Dark! Dark! Dark!
Mary, I call! Wilt hear the prayer
My poor lips dare?
Yea! be to all a Queen most fair,
Crown, sceptre, bear!
But look on me with a mother's eyes
From heaven's bliss;
And waft to me from the starry skies
A mother's kiss!
Dark! Dark! Dark!
The sun is set; the day is dead;
Her Feast has fled;
Can she forget the sweet blood shed,
The last words said
That evening -- 'Woman! behold thy Son!
Oh! priceless right,
Of all His children! The last, least one,
Is heard to-night.
poem by Abram Joseph Ryan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Reoccurring Dream
I am running.
Faster and faster,
from what or
who, I don't know.
The adrenaline pulsing
through my veins,
pushing me to
keep going forward
even though my body
wants to collapse.
I am screaming.
Screaming his name.
I don't know where
he has gone!
I have lost him!
But still I move
forward with hope
that I can
find him!
I see a clearing.
And I see something
in the distance.
Someone hovering over
a shadow on the ground.
Before I do
anything, the person
disappears in the
darkness beyond.
Leaving the shadow.
My heart starts pounding
as I slowly move
toward the shadow
to take a look.
One thought keeps
raising in my head,
but I push it back.
I get closer and closer,
but I still can't see.
When I finally do
my heart stops
and everything spins
all around me.
I fall forward
on my knees.
The tears come
in a rush,
making me loose
my breath.
This has to
be a dream.
This can't be real!
He can't die!
I love him too much!
I pick up
his head gently
and place it on
my lap and
just rock back
and forth
trying to keep calm!
My tears falling
onto his face,
but he doesn't move!
He doesn't even
make a sound.
My love has
been taken from me!
It has been
destroyed forever!
How can I
possibly love now?
How can I do anything
without him?
Why would the
world take him
away from me?
What did I
do to them?
All I did was
love him with
all of my heart and soul!
The tears are
coming so fast,
I can hardly breathe.
It comes out
in gasps making
me very light-headed.
My vision is
blurred by my
constantly falling tears!
But I can
clearly see his
pale, dead face.
So I close my
eyes to try to
make the image
of it go away,
but I still
can see it!
Just like it
was right in
front of me!
I open my eyes
and he is not there!
Like he has
never been there,
Just like he had
walked away.
Leaving me alone
in this cruel world!
But he wanted
to be with me.
He loved me
and does love me still!
I wake up,
drenched in sweat.
Realizing that it
was just a dream.
That is wasn't real.
It wont happen.
Or will it? ...
poem by Jaana Coon
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Child’s Smile
A CHILD'S smile--nothing more;
Quiet, and soft, and grave, and seldom seen;
Like summer lightning o'er,
Leaving the little face again serene.
I think, boy well-beloved,
Thine angel, who did grieve to see how far
Thy childhood is removed
From sports that dear to other children are,
On this pale cheek has thrown
The brightness of his countenance, and made
A beauty like his own--
That, while we see it, we are half afraid,
And marvel, will it stay?
Or, long ere manhood, will that angel fair,
Departing some sad day,
Steal the child-smile and leave the shadow care?
Nay, fear not. As is given
Unto this child the father watching o'er,
His angel up in heaven
Beholds Our Father's face for evermore.
And he will help him bear
His burthen, as his father helps him now:
So may he come to wear
That happy child-smile on an old man's brow.
poem by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Youth By The Brook
Beside the brook the boy reclined
And wove his flowery wreath,
And to the waves the wreath consigned--
The waves that danced beneath.
"So fleet mine hours," he sighed, "away
Like waves that restless flow:
And so my flowers of youth decay
Like those that float below."
"Ask not why I, alone on earth,
Am sad in life's young time;
To all the rest are hope and mirth
When spring renews its prime.
Alas! the music Nature makes,
In thousand songs of gladness--
While charming all around me, wakes
My heavy heart to sadness."
"Ah! vain to me the joys that break
From spring, voluptuous are;
For only one 't is mine to seek--
The near, yet ever far!
I stretch my arms, that shadow-shape
In fond embrace to hold;
Still doth the shade the clasp escape--
The heart is unconsoled!"
"Come forth, fair friend, come forth below,
And leave thy lofty hall,
The fairest flowers the spring can know
In thy dear lap shall fall!
Clear glides the brook in silver rolled,
Sweet carols fill the air;
The meanest hut hath space to hold
A happy loving pair!"
poem by Friedrich Schiller
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The 9th Circle
Is it so hard to believe the hearts are made to be broken
Can't you see that the beauty of love lies in constant times
Don't you want our hearts to be torn wide open
Won't you feel the heaven in our endless cry
Oh at least you could try
Let me just to be closer
For this one last time
Let me fall into your arms
It could be alright
Don't let us grow any colder
For this one last time
Let me close to your heart
Ever amazed how bright are the flames we are burning in
Ever smiled of the tragedies we have locked deep inside
Aren't you obsessed by our hand was on the verge of beginning
Won't you cherish your fear of life that keeps us alive
Oh at least you could try
Let me just to be closer
For this one last time
Let me fall into your arms
It could be alright
Don't let us grow any colder
For this one last time
Let me close to your heart
Let me just to be closer
Won't you let me be closer
Just to let us be closer
Oh, my baby
Oh
You gotta let it closer
Baby, let me closer
Won't you let it come closer
My darling
Oh at least you could try
Let me just to be closer
For this one last time
Let me fall into your arms
It could be alright
Don't let us grow any colder
For this one last time
Let me close to your heart
Oh at least you could try
Let me just to be closer
For this one last time
Let me fall into your arms
It could be alright
Don't let us grow any colder
For this one last time
Let me close to your heart
Let me close to your heart
Baby, let me close to your heart
Let me close to your heart
Baby, let me close to your heart
song performed by by H.I.M.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Do You Remember Once . . .
Do you remember once, in Paris of glad faces,
The night we wandered off under the third moon's rays
And, leaving far behind bright streets and busy places,
Stood where the Seine flowed down between its quiet quais?
The city's voice was hushed; the placid, lustrous waters
Mirrored the walls across where orange windows burned.
Out of the starry south provoking rumors brought us
Far promise of the spring already northward turned.
And breast drew near to breast, and round its soft desire
My arm uncertain stole and clung there unrepelled.
I thought that nevermore my heart would hover nigher
To the last flower of bliss that Nature's garden held.
There, in your beauty's sweet abandonment to pleasure,
The mute, half-open lips and tender, wondering eyes,
I saw embodied first smile back on me the treasure
Long sought across the seas and back of summer skies.
Dear face, when courted Death shall claim my limbs and find them
Laid in some desert place, alone or where the tides
Of war's tumultuous waves on the wet sands behind them
Leave rifts of gasping life when their red flood subsides,
Out of the past's remote delirious abysses
Shine forth once more as then you shone, -- beloved head,
Laid back in ecstasy between our blinding kisses,
Transfigured with the bliss of being so coveted.
And my sick arms will part, and though hot fever sear it,
My mouth will curve again with the old, tender flame.
And darkness will come down, still finding in my spirit
The dream of your brief love, and on my lips your name.
II
You loved me on that moonlit night long since.
You were my queen and I the charming prince
Elected from a world of mortal men.
You loved me once. . . . What pity was it, then,
You loved not Love. . . . Deep in the emerald west,
Like a returning caravel caressed
By breezes that load all the ambient airs
With clinging fragrance of the bales it bears
From harbors where the caravans come down,
I see over the roof-tops of the town
The new moon back again, but shall not see
The joy that once it had in store for me,
Nor know again the voice upon the stair,
The little studio in the candle-glare,
And all that makes in word and touch and glance
The bliss of the first nights of a romance
When will to love and be beloved casts out
The want to question or the will to doubt.
You loved me once. . . . Under the western seas
The pale moon settles and the Pleiades.
The firelight sinks; outside the night-winds moan --
The hour advances, and I sleep alone.
III
Farewell, dear heart, enough of vain despairing!
If I have erred I plead but one excuse --
The jewel were a lesser joy in wearing
That cost a lesser agony to lose.
I had not bid for beautifuller hours
Had I not found the door so near unsealed,
Nor hoped, had you not filled my arms with flowers,
For that one flower that bloomed too far afield.
If I have wept, it was because, forsaken,
I felt perhaps more poignantly than some
The blank eternity from which we waken
And all the blank eternity to come.
And I betrayed how sweet a thing and tender
(In the regret with which my lip was curled)
Seemed in its tragic, momentary splendor
My transit through the beauty of the world.
poem by Alan Seeger
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Sigillum Diaboli
Is it so hard to believe the hearts are made to be broken by love
Can't you see that the beauty of love lies in constant times
Don't you want our hearts to be torn wide open
Won't you feel the heaven in our endless cry
Oh at least you could try
Let me just to be closer
For this one last time
Let me fall into your arms
It could be alright
Don't let us grow any colder
For this one last time
Let me close to your heart
Ever amazed how bright are the flames we are burning in
Ever smiled of the tragedies we have locked deep inside
Aren't you obsessed by our hand was on the verge of beginning
Won't you cherish your fear of life that keeps us alive
Oh at least you could try
Let me just to be closer
For this one last time
Let me fall into your arms
It could be alright
Don't let us grow any colder
For this one last time
Let me close to your heart
Let me just to be closer
Won't you let me be closer
Just to let us be closer
Oh, my baby
Oh
You gotta let it closer
Baby, let me closer
Won't you let it come closer
My darling
Oh at least you could try
Let me just to be closer
For this one last time
Let me fall into your arms
It could be alright
Don't let us grow any colder
For this one last time
Let me close to your heart
Oh at least you could try
Let me just to be closer
For this one last time
Let me fall into your arms
It could be alright
Don't let us grow any colder
For this one last time
Let me close to your heart
Let me close to your heart
Baby, let me close to your heart
Let me close to your heart
Baby, let me close to your heart
song performed by by H.I.M.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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* * *
I walk alone and cry out under the stars.
As one in a desert I hunger for refreshment.
I have need of the coolness of some azure pool.
O, I would anoint my bosom with the clear water!
O, I would immerse myself in the emulous depths!
O, I would drink of ineffable dreams.
You, Beloved, are the silvery lake shimmering in the desert of my youth.
You only can allay the fever of my spirit!
On your lips I should drain the fountain of life.
On your white breast I shall breath the perfume of numberless lilies.
Therein I shall die a thousand deaths and arise reborn in the awful splendor of your love….
* * * * *
Lay your hands,—softer than dove’s wings,—in my hands so I may feel your young life flowing into mine thro’ your finger-tips.
Lay your eyes upon my eyes that I may grow tremulous beneath the flutter of your eyelids.
Lay your heart against my heart that I may hear your love summoning me to forgetfulness.
Lay your tresses about me that I may feel their warm sun streaming thro’ my veins.
Lay your mouth on my mouth until all dissolves in mist about me….
(Is it life? Is it death?)
* * * * *
You are as a million birds that sing unto my heart, O, Beloved.
Thro’ the long nights I hear the chanting of blithe voices.
What divine minstrelsy! what ravishment….
Is this multitudinous melody the rapture of your kiss?
Come to me, press upon my brow the coolness of your young lips that I may hear the thunder of your love in the night….
* * * * *
When will it end, the long vigil….
What dawn will bring you forever unto me, O, my Beloved?
Life is but shadow.
Only you, my Beloved, are more real than shadow.
Beneath your caresses I am as one awakened unto life.
Your finger-tips bear presage of divinity. Your heart-beats are a threnody sublime.
O, Beloved, you are as a white nenuphar lifting its snowy breast on a stream. In your bosom are all the treasures of Elysium. The scent of your skin is like jasmine and honeysuckle.
Why is such loveliness withheld from me, O, Beloved?
When can I look upon you and say: “Beloved! all this beauty is mine forever.”
When will it end, the long vigil….
* * * * *
O, miracle of love!
You whom I adore unto delirium,
Your arms are white lilies upon my bosom.
Stars encircle me when your lips lean down to mine. There is the sound of many waters falling. There is the murmur of a million nightingales,—and the flash of brilliant lightning.
Caress celestial!
Moon-path of my dreams!
O, miracle of Love—my divinity and my crucifixion….
* * * * *
When the young moon silvers the sky, the earth is ours,
We shall go into the forest and wander in the shadow of the pines.
I shall cover you with leaves, and we shall lie on the soft moss entwined like sisters.
And all the while I will know that the fragrance of your skin is sweeter to me than the perfumes of a million roses….
* * * * *
Let me enfold you in my hair.
Let me wind you as in a golden skein.
Give me the curve of your throat, milky white and rose, that I may place about it the glossy fillets of my hair.
Don it as a shining mantilla….
Let my hair shower about you until you are radiant with perfume;
Let it ripple over you like the wind on summer wheat.
Then give me your lips that we may stand united beneath the downpour of its sunlight.
Let us be intermingled as two trees that have bent one single root….
* * * * *
It rains, Beloved….
The dripping of the rain is like the cool kisses of your mouth….
I faint beneath the rapture of your lips.
Be no longer tender.
Cover me with frenzied kisses,—even as I would drench my body in the cruel torrents of the rain.
Envelop me from throat to ankle in delirium intolerable….
* * * * *
To love you like the midnight storm!
To take you swooning unto death as the wind sweeps the waves in tempest!
To transport you unto delirium!
To hear the wild beating of your veins; to feel flame shuddering your blood and to agonize you with my ardor.
To crush you as a flower upon my breast,
To bear you away to some secret valley where I would love you unto insensibility….
* * * * *
If I think of you, I quiver from head to foot.
If I think of you tears flood my eyes.
If I pass you my heart quickens to suffocation and the blood seems to leave my body.
If I look into your eyes a sudden fire burns in my veins.
If I touch you I am as one possessed with madness; my arms tremble and my limbs totter beneath me.
To love you is to suffer the pangs of an intolerable agony.
* * * * *
I see you coming toward me….
Silently you take me in your arms.
Our lips meet and our eyes close.
I feel the shuddering of your breast and the beating of your throat against mine.
We are enveloped in darkness.
We know nothing but the thunder of our veins….
We are swept out into a sea of infinite oblivion.
poem by Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff from The Book of Love (1917)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Fickle One
My eyes went away from me
Following a dark girl who went by.
She was made of black motherofpearl
Made of darkpurple grapes,
And she lashed my blood
With her tail of fire.
After them all I go.
A pale blonde went by
Like a golden plant
Swaying her gifts.
And my mouth went
Like a wave
Discharging on her breast
Lightningbolts of blood.
After them all I go.
But to you, without my moving,
Without seeing you, distant you,
Go my blood and my kisses,
My dark one and my fair one,
My broad one and my slender one,
My ugly one, my beauty,
Made of all the gold
And of all the silver,
Made of all the wheat
And of all the earth,
Made of all the water
Of sea waves,
Made for my arms
Made for my kisses,
Made for my soul.
poem by Pablo Neruda
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The earth to the sun
Oh Sun! oh glorious Sun!
The spell of winter binds me strong and dread
In the dark sleep, the coldness of the dead;
And song and beauty from thy haunts are gone.
The skies above me lower,
The frozen tempests beat upon my breast,
That wearily by its snow-shroud is prest;
And the wild winds rave o'er me in mad power.
At thine averted gaze,
Benumbed and desolate, I droop and die:
Life of my life! Lord of my destiny!
Shine on me with thy life-imparting rays.
Look from thy radiant throne,
And o'er this waste, drear and unlovely now,
Young summer's gorgeous loveliness shall glow,
And beauty clasp me in her magic zone.
Fair landscapes shall arise,
O'er which a sky of tenderest blue shall bend,
Where forest, hill, and vale, and stream shall blend
In beauty like a dream of Paradise.
And in thy living beams
The flowers shall wake, and every dewy cup
Shall send the homage of its perfume up,
And give thy brightness back in rosy gleams.
A full deep symphony,
The voice of streams, the air's melodious sighs,
Songs from all living things shall mingling rise
In one eternal hymn of love to thee.
* * * * * *
In vain, oh Earth, in vain; --
What heeds the Sun, if light or shadow rest
Upon the bosom in his smile so blest,
Or if thou perish in thine icy chain.
If from the shining host,
Like the lost Pleiad, thou wert stricken down,
He would not miss thee from his starry crown --
He would not mark one ray of brightness lost.
Then for the song and bloom,
The untold wealth of beauty, buried deep
Within thy frozen heart, in death-like sleep,
Oh! mourn thou not within thy conscious tomb.
poem by Anne Lynch Botta from Poems (1848)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Hang Up The Swing Of Love Today!
Hang the body and the mind between the arms of the beloved,
in the ecstasy of love's joy:
Bring the tearful streams of the rainy clouds to your eyes,
and cover your heart with the shadow of darkness:
Bring your face nearer to his ear,
and speak of the deepest longings of your heart.
Kabir says: 'Listen to me brother!
bring the vision of the Beloved in your heart.'
Not Marble Nor The Gilded Monuments
THE praisers of women in their proud and beautiful poems
Naming the grave mouth and the hair and the eyes
Boasted those they loved should be forever remembered
These were lies
The words sound but the face in the Istrian sun is forgotten
The poet speaks but to her dead ears no more
The sleek throat is gone -and the breast that was troubled to listen
Shadow from door
Therefore I will not praise your knees nor your fine walking
Telling you men shall remember your name as long
As lips move or breath is spent or the iron of English
Rings from a tongue
I shall say you were young and your arms straight and you!
mouth scarlet
I shall say you will die and none will remember you
Your arms change and none remember the swish of your garments
Nor the click of your shoe
Not with my hand's strength not with difficult labor
Springing the obstinate words to the bones of your breast
And the stubborn line to your young stride and the breath to your breathing
And the beat to your haste
Shall I prevail on the hearts of unborn men to remember
(What is a dead girl but a shadowy ghost
Or a dead man's voice but a distant and vain affirmation
Like dream words most)
Therefore I will not speak of the undying glory of women
I will say you were young and straight and your skin fair
And you stood in the door and the sun was a shadow of leaves on your shoulders
And a leaf on your hair
I will not speak of the famous beauty of dead women
I will say the shape of a leaf lay once on your hair
Till the world ends and the eyes are out and the mouths broken
Look! It is there!
poem by Archibald MacLeish
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Delilah
In the midnight of darkness and terror,
When I would grope nearer to God,
With my back to a record of error
And the highway of sin I have trod,
There comes to me shapes I would banish –
The shapes of the deeds I have done;
And I pray and I plead till they vanish –
All vanish and leave me, save one.
That one, with a smile like the splendour
Of the sun in the middle-day skies –
That one, with a spell that is tender –
That one with a dream in her eyes –
Cometh close, in her rare southern beauty,
Her languor, her indolent grace;
And my soul turns its back on its duty
To live in the light of her face.
She touches my cheek, and I quiver –
I tremble with exquisite pains;
She sighs – like an overcharged river
My blood rushes on through my veins;
She smiles – and in mad-tiger fashion,
As a she-tiger fondles her own,
I clasp her with fierceness and passion,
And kiss her with shudder and groan.
Once more, in our love’s sweet beginning,
I put away God and the World;
Once more, in the joys of our sinnings,
Are the hopes of eternity hurled.
There is nothing my soul lacks or misses
As I clasp the dream-shape to my breast;
In the passion and pain of her kisses
Life blooms to its richest and best.
O ghost of dead sin unrelenting,
Go back to the dust, and the sod!
Too dear and too sweet for repenting,
Ye stand between me and my God.
If I, by the Throne, should behold you,
Smiling up with those eyes loved so well,
Close, close in my arms I would fold you,
And dropp with you down to sweet Hell!
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Even Her Shadow Shares Her Beauty
Even her shadow shares her beauty,
Insomuch as it shows us her form.
A gentle lass, not proud and not snooty,
Her laughter so kind and so warm.
Her posture, her stance and her manner,
Each gesture reflecting her style,
Composure, and even her glamour,
Her lips and her mouth and her smile....
Her hair as it nestles her shoulders,
Cascading like gossamer threads,
Her arms as they sweetly enfold us,
Her fingers caressing our heads.
Her figure that beckons us closer,
Attracts us to ever draw near,
To taste of her lips like ambrosia,
When perfect love casts out our fear.
Behold how her shadow shows glory,
Her essence, her being, her all.
It tells us the truth of her story,
Her life, in real time, on the wall.
I'd rather kiss her than her shadow,
I'd rather be wed to her heart...
I'd rather be father to children I'd know,
A parent new life to impart.
I'd rather reach out to caress her,
Undress her, make love and be blessed.
While shadows grant limited pleasure,
Her body is truly the best...
poem by Denis Martindale
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Dulcis Memoria
Long, long ago I heard a little song,
(Ah, was it long ago, or yesterday?)
So lowly, slowly wound the tune along,
That far into my heart it found the way:
A melody consoling and endearing;
And still, in silent hours, I'm often hearing
The small, sweet song that does not die away.
Long, long ago I saw a little flower,--
(Ah, was it long ago, or yesterday?)
So fair of face and fragrant for an hour,
That something dear to me it seemed to say:
A thought of joy that blossomed into being
Without a word; and now I'm often seeing
The friendly flower that does not fade away.
Long, long ago we had a little child,--
(Ah, was it long ago, or yesterday?)
Into his mother's eyes and mine he smiled
Unconscious love; warm in our arms he lay.
An angel called! Dear heart, we could not hold him;
Yet secretly your arms and mine infold him--
Our little child who does not go away.
Long, long ago? Ah, memory, make it clear--
(It was not long ago, but yesterday,)
So little and so helpless and so dear
Let not the song be lost, the flower decay!
His voice, his waking eyes, his gentle sleeping:
The smallest things are safest in thy keeping.
Sweet memory, keep our child with us always.
poem by Henry Van Dyke
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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