love poems for her

I.

Since Love's a Passion, Sense in Love,
Were senseless, dull Impertinence,
For Love, no more than Faith, we prove
By pedant Reason, babling Sense;
Faith in Love, as Religion too,
By Good-Works, not Good-Sense, we show.

II.

In busie Life's most base Concerns,
Of Honour, Pow'r, or Interest,
That Reason something more discerns,
Than Blind Faith can, it is confest;
But in the great Affair of Love,

I.

My pregnant Passion, fierce Desire,
Abortive made my Love;
By having too much of Love's Fire,
I did the Colder prove;
So too much Vigour did prevent
My Love, of its Accomplishment.

II.

As, in Beginning of our Love,
My Tongue was useless made,
But less did my Dame's Pity move,
The more my Love 'twould aid;
The Haste, and Fierceness of my Love,
Its Lett did, and Prevention prove.

III.

Our Flames were quench'd, by their Excess;
Our Joys less, for their Store;

Let each vain giddy-brain'd Poetic Fop
Talk of Parnassus , or its double Top,
And by his Fanciful Describing it,
Think to procure the vain Name of a Wit:
Whilst, Chloris! Thou, my Muse and Theme shalt be;
Thy Breasts, those Twins of Hills, shall be to me
Parnassus , since he, who is Head on them
Can lay, can ne'r want Wit on such a Theme,
Or Pleasant, Amorous, Poetic Dream:
Then once my Head upon them let me lay,
They higher Thoughts into it will convey;
They'll fire with Love, at once, my Breast and Brain,

I

I F from the Lustre of the Sun,
To catch your fleeting Shade you run,
In vain is all your Haste, Sir;
But if your Feet reverse the Race,
The Fugitive will urge the Chace,
And follow you as fast, Sir.

II

Thus, if at any Time, as now,
Some scornful Chloe you pursue,
In Hopes to overtake Her;

In Bourgueil Gardens more than one of yore
Engraved upon the bark names fondly sweet,
And many a heart 'neath Louvre's gold ceilings beat,
At flash of smile, with pride which thrilled to soar.

What matters it? — their joy or grief is o'er;
They lie in stillness where four oak boards meet
Beneath the sighing grass, with none to greet
Their voiceless dust that feeds oblivion's shore.

All die. Mary, Helen, Cassandra bold,
Your lovely forms would be but ashes cold,
— Nor rose nor lily sees the morrow's land —

A SCARECROW in a field of corn,
A thing of tatters all forlorn,
Once felt the influence of Spring
And fell in love — a foolish thing,
And most particularly so
In his case — for he loved a crow!

" Alack-a-day! it's wrong, I know,
It's wrong for me to love a crow;
An all-wise man created me
To scare the crows away, " cried he;
" And though the music of her " Caw"
Thrills through and through this heart of straw,

" My passion I must put away
And do my duty, come what may!

The Christ is far, the Christ is far away.
But thou, my love, art near Thy fondling hands
I feel, and through the dark see eyes that say:
" My love is here. My love a bulwark stands
Against life's sorrows stern and loud demands "
O Love, my soul in answer lifts its voice:
" While love I hold, how should I not rejoice?
While thee I hold, beneath thy ample sway,
Easy shall be that strait path of my choice,
Although the Christ, the Christ is far away. "

My lady is not fair, but a clear light
Shines in her eyes from morning until night.

My lady is not learned, but she knows
The way to every heart, — straight there she goes.

Though neither fair nor learned, she is one
To love and love, and never to have done.

O H ! this illicit passion, —
'Tis ardent for a season, yet 'twill waste,
Like a wide-flaring and ill-guarded flame,
By its own vehemence; while real Love,
Like the mysterious bush which Moses saw,
Burns — yet is not consumed!

Hate is the thing that will save mankind;
We love too much in our witless way,
Pulpit, sinner and state allied,
We are far too smug in our peace and pride,
Nation of blind men leading blind
We are all too dull in the psalms we say
In the hymns we sing and the prayers we pray —
Insults flung in the face of Him
And His flaming cherubim.
Hate is the call we are waiting for,
Trumpeting high o'er the boom of war,
A hate so strong and a hate so wide
No wrong can stand in its ruthless tide.
Hate of tyranny, hate of lies,