What Is Love?
What is Love?
Is it a folly,
Is it mirth, or melancholy?
Joys above,
Are there many, or not any?
What is Love?
If you please,
A most sweet folly!
Full of mirth and melancholy:
Both of these!
In its sadness worth all gladness,
If you please!
Prithee where,
Goes Love a-hiding?
Is he long in his abiding
Anywhere?
Can you bind him when you find him;
Prithee, where?
With spring days
Love comes and dallies:
Upon the mountains, through the valleys
Lie Love's ways.
Then he leaves you and deceives you
In spring days.
poem by Ernest Christopher Dowson
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Related quotes
Hence, All You Vain Delights from the Nice Valour
Hence, all you vain delights,
As short as are the nights
Wherein you spend your folly:
There's nought in this life sweet,
If man were wise to see't,
But only melancholy,
O sweetest melancholy!
Welcome, folded arms, and fixed eyes,
A sigh that piercing mortifies,
A look that's fastened to the ground,
A tongue chained up without a sound;
Fountain-heads, and pathless groves,
Places which pale passion loves;
Moonlight walks, when all the fowls
Are warmly housed, save bats and owls;
A midnight bell, a parting groan:
These are the sounds we feed upon;
Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley,
Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.
poem by John Fletcher
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Tribute to Oliver Goldsmith
Tribute to O.Goldsmith
When a lovely woman stoops to folly
and finds too late that men betray.
What can cure her melancholy?
what can wash her guilt away?
Oliver Goldsmith
When a lovely woman stoops to folly
then she alone must bear the shame.
She had her fling but now by golly
she finds that she has lost the game.
And finds too late that men betray.
It was her choice she took her
her lust with no delay
and joined him in the oldest dance.
What can cure her melancholy?
Except perhaps a new affair
another essay into folly.
Has she the courage will she dare.
What can wash her guilt away?
She can pretend to innocence
What no one knows no one can say.
Her silence is her best defence.
18-Feb-08
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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Away, Melancholy
Away, melancholy,
Away with it, let it go.
Are not the trees green,
The earth as green?
Does not the wind blow,
Fire leap and the rivers flow?
Away melancholy.
The ant is busy
He carrieth his meat,
All things hurry
To be eaten or eat.
Away, melancholy.
Man, too, hurries,
Eats, couples, buries,
He is an animal also
With a hey ho melancholy,
Away with it, let it go.
Man of all creatures
Is superlative
(Away melancholy)
He of all creatures alone
Raiseth a stone
(Away melancholy)
Into the stone, the god
Pours what he knows of good
Calling, good, God.
Away melancholy, let it go.
Speak not to me of tears,
Tyranny, pox, wars,
Saying, Can God
Stone of man's thoughts, be good?
Say rather it is enough
That the stuffed
Stone of man's good, growing,
By man's called God.
Away, melancholy, let it go.
Man aspires
To good,
To love
Sighs;
Beaten, corrupted, dying
In his own blood lying
Yet heaves up an eye above
Cries, Love, love.
It is his virtue needs explaining,
Not his failing.
Away, melancholy,
Away with it, let it go
poem by Stevie Smith
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Sentimental & Melancholy
Johnny mercer / richard whiting
Sentimental and melancholy
Whenever i think about you
It's only a mood,
A brief interlude
That's better described as just feeling blue
I suppose that it's just my folly
To keep it alive as i do
But it's a kind of sugar coated misery
And foolish as it seems
I thought i'd like to be
Sentimental and melancholy
Whenever i think about you
song performed by by Billie Holiday
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sentimental Melancholy
Johnny mercer / richard whiting
Sentimental and melancholy
Whenever I think about you
Its only a mood,
A brief interlude
Thats better described as just feeling blue
I suppose that its just my folly
To keep it alive as I do
But its a kind of sugar coated misery
And foolish as it seems
I thought Id like to be
Sentimental and melancholy
Whenever I think about you
song performed by by Billie Holiday
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Melancholy
HENCE, all you vain delights,
As short as are the nights
Wherein you spend your folly!
There 's naught in this life sweet,
If men were wise to see't,
But only melancholy--
O sweetest melancholy!
Welcome, folded arms and fixed eyes,
A sight that piercing mortifies,
A look that 's fasten'd to the ground,
A tongue chain'd up without a sound!
Fountain-heads and pathless groves,
Places which pale passion loves!
Moonlight walks, when all the fowls
Are warmly housed, save bats and owls!
A midnight bell, a parting groan--
These are the sounds we feed upon:
Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley,
Nothing 's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.
poem by John Fletcher
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Hark, The Inaudible!
a part dies
a part lives
hear that note
of melancholy
behind every
audible note of mirth
a part dies
a part lives
the thunder melts
floods the earth
hear those tears
the cloud sheds
a part dies
a part lives
blend of melancholy
and mirth
tears anew
laughter anew
a part dies
a part revives...
poem by Indira Babbellapati
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Melancholy Mood
A little collie weed to ease I grief
too much agony living in the limits of big city
a little collie weed to meditate
too much insanity in this society
melancholy mood I eat for my food melancholy mood
rise this morning smile with the sun
oh I'm blessed another day has begun
everything in life has its purpose
find its reason it has its season
melancholy mood I eat for my food melancholy mood
tears leave my eyes I just want to fly
deep down I feel pain
but I know I must rise again
from this melancholy mood melancholy mood
melancholy mood I eat for my food melancholy mood
song performed by by Ziggy Marley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Love Sonnets Of Proteus. Part III: Gods And False Gods: LXXIX
AMOUR OBLIGE
I could forgive you, dearest, all the folly
Your heart has dreamed. Alas, as we grow old,
We need more vigorous cures for melancholy,
A stronger nutriment for hearts grown cold.
We need in face of weakness to be bold.
We need our folly to keep fate at bay.
Oh, we need madness in the manifold
Doubts and despairs which herald our decay.
I could forgive you all and more than all.
Yet, dearest, though for us fate waves his hand
And we accept it as the common lot
To meet no more at this life's festival,
It were unseemly you should take your stand,
Now my heart's citadel is laid in siege,
In open field with those who love me not.
Love has a rank which surely should oblige.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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A New Pilgrimage: Sonnet XIX
Alas, that words like these should be but folly!
Behold, the Boulevard mocks, and I mock too.
Let us away and purge our melancholy
With the last laughter at the Ambigu!
Here all is real. Here glory's self is true
Through each regime to its own mission holy
Of plying still the world with something new
To cure its ache, or nobly souled or lowly.
One title Paris holds above the rest
Untouched by time or fortune's change or frown,
One temple of high fame, where she sits dressed
In youth eternal, and mirth's myrtle crown,
And where she writes, each night, with deathless hands,
``To all the glories--of the stage--of France.''
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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The Flight of Peace
TRUST and Treachery, Wisdom, Folly,
Madness, Mirth and Melancholy,
Love and Hatred, Thrift and Pillage,
All are housed in one small village.
And if such be Life’s mix’d being,
Where may Peace from ruin fleeing,
Find a shelter and inherit
All the calm of her own merit?
In a bark of gentle motion
Sailing on the summer ocean?
There worst war the tempest wages
And the whirlpool’s hunger rages.
In some lonely new-world bower,
Hidden like a forest flower?
There too, there, to irk the stranger,
Stalks the wild-eyed spirit Danger!
Vainly would she build by roving
Or in hoping or in loving,
Or in solitary spaces,
Having in all times and places,
Or in none a home of beauty
In the fearless heart of Duty,
Dwelling there and seeing
God’s right hand all things decreeing.
poem by Charles Harpur
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Chanson d’Amour
I thought to live without true love
All my life through to be at peace,
But this heart, once again, would prove
Its folly from which I had won free.
Greater the folly is in me
Than child crying foolishly
To possess the lovely star
He sees shining clear and far.
However much I may despair
Love has well rewarded me
For serving him with all the care
I possess, without treachery,
Making Folly’s King of me.
Let all beware his deceit
Who grants such a gift, we see,
To those who serve loyally.
If I show anger it’s no wonder
To one who wounds me so sore
God! If I had him in my power
For just one day and no more:
Then he’d pay for his folly
As God my witness be!
He’d pay with his death, unless
He vanquished my lady blessed.
Ay! Noble heart, that is so wise,
Don’t scorn all my foolishness.
I know I’ve not the slightest right
To love you, just a lover’s right:
But folly drives us recklessly
Like a storm-tossed ship at sea,
That’s blown where the wind will blow,
Until all’s wrecked and brought low.
My lady who lacks never a grace,
Generous, kind, show me mercy:
Since there’s no evil in that face
But all good shines there clearly,
You know from whence this folly
That takes my life comes to me.
To whom can I cry again,
Except to you, in pain?
Song, pay her your respects, she
Is my sweet folly, and please
Beg her for God and honour
Never to prove a traitor.
poem by Le Châtelain de Coucy
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To be bowed by grief is folly; Naught is gained by melancholy; Better than the pain of thinking, Is to steep the sense in drinking.
Neglected Gardens
Weeds
from seeds
sown by youthful folly
breed
and feed)
middle-aged melancholy.
poem by Brian Taylor
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There was an Old Lady whose folly
Induced her to sit in a holly:
Whereupon by a thorn
Her dress being torn,
She quickly became melancholy.
by Edward Lear from A Book of Nonsense (1846)
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When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy, what art can wash her guilt away?
quote by Oliver Goldsmith
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Songs Set To Music: 1. Set By Mr. Abel
Reading ends in melancholy,
Wine breeds vices and diseases,
Wealth is but care, and love but folly,
Only friendship truly pleases.
My wealth, my books, my flask, my Molly,
Farewell all if friendship ceases.
poem by Matthew Prior
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To An Unfortunate Woman At The Theatre
Maiden, that with sullen brow
Sitt'st behind those virgins gay,
Like a scorched and mildew'd bough,
Leafless mid the blooms of May.
Him who lured thee and forsook,
Oft I watch'd with angry gaze,
Fearful saw his pleading look,
Anxious heard his fervid phrase.
Soft the glances of the youth,
Soft his speech, and soft his sigh;
But no sound like simple truth,
But no true love in his eye.
Loathing thy polluted lot,
Hie thee, maiden, hie thee hence!
Seek thy weeping mother's cot,
With a wiser innocence.
Thou hast known deceit and folly,
Thou hast felt that vice is woe;
With a musing melancholy,
Inly armed, go, maiden! go.
Mother, sage of self dominion,
Firm thy steps, O melancholy!
The strongest plume in wisdom's pinion
Is the memory of past folly.
Mute the sky-lark and forlorn
While she moults the firstling plumes,
That had skimm'd the tender corn,
Or the bean-field's odorous blooms.
Soon with renovated wing,
Shall she dare a loftier flight,
Upward to the day-star spring,
And embathe in heavenly light.
poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Melancholy
My mother the cow who still feeds me now is being tortured
Her son the bull who the fields should plough is being slaughtered
The human child in the womb who is never born for being unwanted
Melancholy in the Age of Kali
Melancholy in the Age of Kali
Kali Kali
My mother, the earth, man treats like dirt, her resources being exhausted
Ant-like astronauts, of the human race, scratch and scar the moon's beautiful face
My brother, the sun, he still shines on
He'll continue to shine for some time to come
Melancholy in the Age of Kali
Melancholy in the Age of Kali
Kali Kali
Lamentation Lamentation Lamentation (repeat)
Heavenly Father still waters the grains
Seems like tears fall as it rains
Little boy blue come blow on your horn
The sheeps in the meadow the cows in the corn
Oh sweet friend of mine from an ancient nursery rhyme
From a distant land once upon a time
Melancholy in the Age of Kali
Melancholy in the Age of Kali
Kali Kali
song performed by by X-Ray Spex
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Folly
(For A. K. K.)
What distant mountains thrill and glow
Beneath our Lady Folly's tread?
Why has she left us, wise in woe,
Shrewd, practical, uncomforted?
We cannot love or dream or sing,
We are too cynical to pray,
There is no joy in anything
Since Lady Folly went away.
Many a knight and gentle maid,
Whose glory shines from years gone by,
Through ignorance was unafraid
And as a fool knew how to die.
Saint Folly rode beside Jehanne
And broke the ranks of Hell with her,
And Folly's smile shone brightly on
Christ's plaything, Brother Juniper.
Our minds are troubled and defiled
By study in a weary school.
O for the folly of the child!
The ready courage of the fool!
Lord, crush our knowledge utterly
And make us humble, simple men;
And cleansed of wisdom, let us see
Our Lady Folly's face again.
poem by Joyce Kilmer
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