The Sad Shepherd's Passion of Love

O Gentle Love, ungentle for thy deed,
Thou makest my heart
A bloody mark
With piercing shot to bleed.
Shoot soft, sweet Love, for fear thou shoot amiss,
For fear too keen
Thy arrows been,
And hist the heart where my beloved is.
Too fair that fortune were, nor never I
Shall be so blest,
Among the rest,
That Love shall seize on her by sympathy.
Then since with Love my prayers bear no boot,
This doth remain
To cease my pain,
I take the wound, and die at Venus' foot.

poem by George PeeleReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Related quotes

Translated from Geibel

O say, thou wild, thou oft deceived heart,
What mean these noisy throbbings in my breast?
After thy long, unutterable woe
Wouldst thou not rest?

Fall'n from Life's tree the sweet rose-blossom lies,
And fragrant youth has fled. What made to seem
This earth as fair to thee as Paradise,
Was all a dream.

The blossom fell, the thorn was left to me;
Deep from the wound the blood-drops ever flow,
All that I have are yearnings, wild desires,
And wrath and woe.

They brought me Lethe's water, saying, 'Drink!'
'Drink, for the draught is sweet,' I heard them say,
'Shalt learn how soft a thing forgetting is.'
I answered : 'Nay.'

What tho' indeed it were an idle cheat,
Nathless to me 'twas very fair and blest:
With every breath I draw I know that love
Reigns in my breast.

Let me go forth,--and thou, my heart, bleed on:
A lonely spot I seek by night and day,
That love and sorrow I may there breathe forth
In a last lay.

poem by Amy LevyReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Love Fulfilled

Hast thou longed through weary days
For the sight of one loved face?
Mast thou cried aloud for rest,
Mid the pain of sundering hours;
Cried aloud for sleep and death,
Since the sweet unhoped for best
Was a shadow and a breath?
O, long now, for no fear lowers
O’er these faint feet-kissing flowers.
O, rest now; and yet in sleep
All thy longing shalt thou keep.

Thou shalt rest and have no fear
Of a dull awaking near,
Of a life for ever blind,
Uncontent and waste and wide.
Thou shalt wake and think it sweet
That thy love is near and kind.
Sweeter still for lips to meet;
Sweetest that thine heart doth hide
Longing all unsatisfied
With all longing’s answering
Howsoever close ye cling.

Thou rememberest how of old
E’en thy very pain grew cold,
How thou might’st not measure bliss
E’en when eyes and hands drew nigh.
Thou rememberest all regret
For the scarce remembered kiss,
The lost dream of how they met,
Mouths once parched with misery.
Then seemed Love born but to die,
Now unrest, pain, bliss are one,
Love, unhidden and alone.

poem by William MorrisReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Licia Sonnets 20

First did I fear, when first my love began,
Possessed in fits by watchful jealousy
I sought to keep what I by favor won,
And brooked no partner in my love to be.
But tyrant sickness fed upon my love,
And spread his ensigns, dyed with color white;
Then was suspicion glad for to remove,
And loving much did fear to lose her quite.
Erect, fair sweet, the colors thou didst wear;
Dislodge thy griefs, the short'ners of content;
For now of life, not love, is all my fear,
Lest life and love be both together spent.
Live but, fair love, and banish thy disease,
And love, kind heart, both when and whom thou please.

poem by Giles Fletcher The ElderReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

To mother with love...

An angel thou art
Beauty personified
Those gentle fingers
Those soulful eyes

A smile so gorgeous
A touch so soft
A prayer on thy lips
And answers aloft

Thy kiss so loving
Thy love so pure
Our pain in thine eyes
Thou so bravely endure

And a hug so warm
And a faith so deep
And a whisper to god
No fears to weep

And a life so unconditional
And a caress to assure
Of thy love and thy being
Of those unpaid gifts galore

A balm for each heart
A kiss for each tear
Our gift from heaven
To shield each fear

Then why do we hurt thou
And make thy cry
So ruthless, so cruel
But still not a sigh

And yet thy loves
And yet thy cares
And hopes and wishes
And add us to thy prayers

Oh, why art thou so gentle
Oh why so kind
Thou could go so much further
And leave us all behind

Holding my hands so gently
Thou then doth sighs
With that twinkle so lovely
In thine lovely eyes

Thoust uttered not a word
And yet said so much
Those gentle eyes told it all
Along with that gentle touch

And so thy stand
My mentor, my guide
To lead us all to eternity
My mater, our pride.

poem by Aashi JoshiReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

To Olivia

I fear to love thee, Sweet, because
Love's the ambassador of loss;
White flake of childhood, clinging so
To my soiled raiment, thy shy snow
At tenderest touch will shrink and go.
Love me not, delightful child.
My heart, by many snares beguiled,
Has grown timorous and wild.
It would fear thee not at all,
Wert thou not so harmless-small.
Because thy arrows, not yet dire,
Are still unbarbed with destined fire,
I fear thee more than hadst thou stood
Full-panoplied in womanhood.

poem by Francis ThompsonReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Pensive Thought

Your youthful beauty found peace on your face
As thy wandered the path of love of the past
Effeminate and innocent where love took its place
In the memory of your heart, where your first love last

Pensive thou long in love's sweet air
And think of love inundated in potion
Thy look so grave, in its grave thy stare
With all your love, in love's sweet motion

My heart knew then, that thou heart I wear
The look of my love, forever and soft
When thou pensively dream with out a care
My love raises with thou pensive thought aloft

poem by Kevin Michael MurphyReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

There Is Mercy With Thee

Lord, should'st thou weigh my righteousness
Or mark what I have done amiss,
How should thy servant stand?
Tho' others might, yet surely I
Must hide my face, nor dare to cry
For mercy at thy hand.

But thou art loth thy bolts to shoot;
Backward and slow to execute
The vengeance due to me:
Thou dost not willingly reprove,
For all the mild effects of love
Are center'd, Lord, in thee.

Shine, then, thou all-subduing light,
The powers of darkness put to flight
Nor from me ever part:
From earth to heaven be thou my guide,
And O, above each gift beside,
Give me an upright heart.

poem by Augustus Montague TopladyReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Do Not Ask For Love

Do not ask for love (prithee)
And is it so, once you thou art returning?
Hast thou lost thy way as once before?
I warned thee more than many times, thus would it be.
I shall not be thy refuge once more.
Thou makest me free then soon thou makest demands on me
And i am not thy love, thou workest in me slavery.
But i shan't hear thee as before.
I prithee, do not ask for love once more.
So go my way, and soon i shall go likewise.
And if thy path be high, then be mine low.
Behold my footsteps in the sand, but follow not.
For soon they shall be covered with snow.
Thou makest me free then soon thou makest demands on me
And i am not thy love, thou workest in me slavery.
But i shan't hear thee as before.
I prithee, do not ask for love once more.
I prithee, do not ask for love once more.

song performed by by MonkeesReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!

Share
George Herbert

Discipline

THROW away Thy rod,
Throw away Thy wrath;
   O my God,
Take the gentle path!

For my heart's desire
Unto Thine is bent:
   I aspire
To a full consent.

Not a word or look
I affect to own,
   But by book,
And Thy Book alone.

Though I fail, I weep;
Though I halt in pace,
   Yet I creep
To the throne of grace.

Then let wrath remove;
Love will do the deed;
   For with love
Stony hearts will bleed.

Love is swift of foot;
Love 's a man of war,
   And can shoot,
And can hit from far.

Who can 'scape his bow?
That which wrought on Thee,
   Brought Thee low,
Needs must work on me.

Throw away Thy rod;
Though man frailties hath,
   Thou art God:
Throw away Thy wrath!

poem by George HerbertReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Phillis II

Love guards the roses of thy lips
And flies about them like a bee;
If I approach he forward skips,
And if I kiss he stingeth me.

Love in thine eyes doth build his bower,
And sleeps within their pretty shine;
And if I look the boy will lower,
And from their orbs shoot shafts divine.

Love works thy heart within his fire,
And in my tears doth firm the same;
And if I tempt it will retire,
And of my plaints doth make a game.

Love, let me cull her choicest flowers;
And pity me, and calm her eye;
Make soft her heart, dissolve her lowers
Then will I praise thy deity.

But if thou do not, Love, I'll truly serve her
In spite of thee, and by firm faith deserve her.

poem by Thomas LodgeReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Phillis 02

LOVE guards the roses of thy lips
And flies about them like a bee;
If I approach he forward skips,
And if I kiss he stingeth me.

Love in thine eyes doth build his bower,
And sleeps within their pretty shine;
And if I look the boy will lower,
And from their orbs shoot shafts divine.

Love works thy heart within his fire,
And in my tears doth firm the same;
And if I tempt it will retire,
And of my plaints doth make a game.

Love, let me cull her choicest flowers;
And pity me, and calm her eye;
Make soft her heart, dissolve her lowers
Then will I praise thy deity.

But if thou do not, Love, I'll truly serve her
In spite of thee, and by firm faith deserve her.

poem by Thomas LodgeReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

To Girls Whom Cut Thy Wrists

Penetrating deep, thy poem cuts my heart
Bidding adieu, my love is cut apart
Teeming down thy lines, my love is found anew
For every cut thou make, is a line inherently true.

With each swift cut, a pain of heart thou make
In each move, my loving heart thou take
Sweet girls who slice thine own wrist
All that blood my heart shall dearly miss

To each permanent scar, with this poem's potency
My love's lips sweetly kiss
To cleanse thou painful mar and
bring back thine soul amiss!

poem by Kevin Michael MurphyReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

A Selfish Lover

My love doth not love but love it feels
Inside my heart which is deaf and mute.
I cannot love thee but my soul peals
The song of love into sweet fruit.
Love is the virtue, I selfishly hoard
A vice to entrap mine only good.
In the miser in me, my fruit I store
And eat for myself as love should.
But my heart doth not hear
And my heart doth not speak
The rich love my soul endear
Or the love thine heart seek?
For I do love one, but only me
If thou call that love or being miserly?

poem by Kevin Michael MurphyReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share
William Shakespeare

Sonnet 40: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all

Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more.
Then if for my love, thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest;
But yet be blamed, if thou thy self deceivest
By wilful taste of what thy self refusest.
I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
And yet love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love's wrong, than hate's known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes.

poem by William ShakespeareReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Wilt Thou Unkind Thus Reave Me

Wilt thou unkind thus reave me
Of my heart, of my heart,
And so leave me, and so leave me?

Farewell! Farewell!
But yet or e'er I part, O cruel,
Kiss me, sweet, kiss me,
sweet, sweet my jewel.

Hope by disdain grows cheerless,
Fear doth love, love doth fear
Beauty peerless, beauty peerless.

True love cannot be changed
Though delight from desert
Be estranged, be estranged.

poem by John DowlandReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Thine Heart Conceive

The heart feels what the mind cannot conceive.
How can thou love me? But in thy love thou burn
Mine heart solemnly, my life savior I perceive,
For thou take mine heart's ashes from thy golden urn
And blow them into me, for my soul to spring,
Spring in the season of all love temperate
Flute like thy breathe to mine heart and soulfully sing,
Temperament to me, love to mine heart moderate
As I sit by thy gentle fire content and warm
Pondering the question of love and how can it be?
That thou ravishingly burn while I slowly transform,
Into a soft wax that quickly emasculates me.
For thou say nothing but only breathe
The love mine heart feels and thine heart conceive

poem by Kevin Michael MurphyReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Sonnet XXXIII: Venus Victrix

Could Juno's self more sovereign presence wear
Than thou, 'mid other ladies throned in grace?—
Or Pallas, when thou bend'st with soul-stilled face
O'er poet's page gold-shadowed in thy hair?
Dost thou than Venus seem less heavenly fair
When o'er the sea of love's tumultuous trance
Hovers thy smile, and mingles with thy glance
That sweet voice like the last wave murmuring there?
Before such triune loveliness divine
Awestruck I ask, which goddess here most claims
The prize that, howsoe'er adjudged, is thine?
Then Love breathes low the sweetest of thy names;
And Venus Victrix to my heart doth bring
Herself, the Helen of her guerdoning.

poem by Dante Gabriel RossettiReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

A Love Secret

Love has its secrets, joy has its revealings.
How shall I speak of that which love has hid?
If my beloved shall return to greet me,
Deeds shall be done for her none ever did.

My beloved loved me. How shall I reveal it?
We were alone that morning in the street.
She looked down at the ground, and blushed, and trembled.
She stopped me with her eyes when these did meet.

``What wouldst thou, sweet one? What wouldst thou with sorrow,
Thou, the new morning star with me, the night?
What are those flowers thou holdest to thy bosom?
What are the thoughts thou hidest from my sight?''

``Thine are these flowers,'' she said, ``these foolish roses,
And thine the thoughts, if thus it be thy will.
I hold them close for fear that thou shouldst mock me,
I hold them to my heart for fear of ill.''

``Nay, what of ill? 'Tis only age is evil,
Only forgetfulness and grief and pain;
What dost thou know of grief, that thou shouldst fear it?
Mine is the grief who cannot love again.''

She raised her eyes, she looked at me in wonder,
``The ache is here,'' she said, ``by night and day;
I cannot teach my heart to bear its burden,
I cannot turn my silence from its way.''

``Speak to me, child. I am thy wise physician,
A man acquainted with all grief can teach;
There is no sorrow but has joy for sister,
No silence but finds counterpart in speech.''

My beloved laughed. She saw through my dissembling;
She held to me her hand, that I might kiss,
The inside of her hand. 'Twas like a petal
Of her own roses, but more dear than this.

I felt its pulses, like a bird in prison;
``Sweet child,'' I said, ``what wouldst thou I should prove?
I cannot make thee wiser than thy wisdom,
Who knowest all things since thou knowest love.''

How shall I tell it? How shall I reveal it?
I led her by the hand, as thus I said,
Back from the street to where it stood, my dwelling,
And closed the door on where it stood, my bed.

Her laughter stopped. ``Nay, use not thou unkindly.
Thine is the hand to deal or spare the blame;
I dare not be to thee thus uninvited,
Thou dost not know me, hast not learned my name.''

How shall I tell it? How shall I reveal it?
Love in that instant found its latest birth,
``Soul of my soul,'' I cried, ``thy name is Pleasure,
The sweetest thing to love on this sad Earth.''

I held her in my arms, I pressed her fastly.
``Ah, if thou lovedst me indeed,'' she cried.
``I love thee, and I love thee,'' was my answer,
``My sister, my beloved one, my bride!''

Love has its secrets. Joy has its revealings.
I speak of this which love in vain has hid;
If my beloved shall return to greet me,
Deeds shall be done for her none ever did.

poem by Wilfrid Scawen BluntReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share

Fear Not My Love

Fear not my love
Take me back into your heart
Fear not my love
Let us make a fresh start

Fear not my love
The past is behind
Fear not my love
No more doubts in your mind

Fear not my love
Let me give back all I abused
Fear not my love
Perspicuous, lucid, unconfused

Fear not my love
I'll not withhold or reserve
Fear not my love
You shall have all you deserve

Fear not my love
In my arms be secure
Fear not my love
For all time it will endure

Fear not my love
It is yours for the taking
Fear not my love
It is ours for the making

Fear not my love
Seek the future we planned
Fear not my love
Together hand in hand

poem by Michael ErnstReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share
Alexander Pope

Prayer of St. Francis Xavier

Thou art my God, sole object of my love;
Not for the hope of endless joys above;
Nor for the fear of endless pains below,
Which they who love thee not must undergo.

For me, and such as me, thou deign'st to bear
An ignominious cross, the nails, the spear:
A thorny crown transpierc'd thy sacred brow,
While bloody sweats from ev'ry member flow.

For me in tortures thou resignd'st thy breath,
Embrac'd me on the cross, and sav'd me by thy death.
And can these sufferings fail my heart to move?
What but thyself can now deserve my love?

Such as then was, and is, thy love to me,
Such is, and shall be still, my love to thee -
To thee, Redeemer! mercy's sacred spring!
My God, my Father, Maker, and my King!

poem by Alexander PopeReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Share