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The Vine The wine of Love is music,
And the feast of Love is song:
And when Love sits down to the banquet,
Love sits long: Sits long and arises drunken,
But not with the feast and the wine;
He reeleth with his own heart,
That great, rich Vine. James Thomson Back to top
True Love True love is a sacred flame
That burns eternally,
And none can dim its special glow
Or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tone
And hears with gentle ear,
True love gives with open heart
And true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands
It neither rules nor binds,
And true love holds with gentle hands
The hearts that it entwines. Back to top
Perfect Woman She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleam'd upon my sight;
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful dawn;
A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.
I saw her upon nearer view,
A Spirit, yet a Woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin liberty;
A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet:
A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles.
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller between life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, nobly plann'd,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light. William Wordsworth Back to top
Where there is love Where there is love the heart is light,
Where there is love the day is bright,
Where there is love there is a song,
To help when things are going wrong
Where there is love there is a smile
To make all things seem more worthwhile,
Where there is love there's quiet peace,
A tranquil place where turmoil's cease -
Love changes darkness into light
And makes the heart take "wingless flight". Helen Steiner Rice Back to top
A Walled Garden 'Your marriage,' he said, 'should have within it, a secret and protected
place open to you alone.
Imagine it to be a walled garden, entered by a door to which only you hold the key.
Within this garden you will cease to be a mother, father, employee, homemaker
or any other of the roles which you fulfil in daily life.
Here you are yourselves two people who love each other.
Here you can concentrate on one another's needs.'
So take my hand and let us go back to our garden.
The time we spend together is not wasted but invested.
Invested in our future and the nurture of our love. Anon Back to top
The Art of Marriage A good marriage must be created,
In the marriage, the little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say 'I love you' at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together and facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is a common search for the good and beautiful.
It is not only marrying the right person -
It is being the right partner. Anon Back to top
Love Love cannot be defined in one single term,
It cannot be taught and cannot be measured.
It should always be handled carefully,
An eternal and precious gift to always be
Treasured.
Love is fickle, love is kind,
It can only be bought by the heart.
Love sometimes makes you suffer,
It makes you cry when you are apart.
You cannot help who you love,
Nor can you make one love another.
Love is gentle and caring,
As is the love of a loving brother.
It cannot be taken lightly,
Those who pretend have much to learn.
Pompous airs accomplish nothing,
In the long run there's nothing in return.
One may die or one may leave,
Leaving others in despair.
But true love will never end, As long as both continue to care.
So you get a taste of love, It's gentle, kind and fair.
It's eternally remembered...
Lifting spirits when in despair. Reddy Fox Back to top
Marriage is the greatest happiness of all In a marriage, two people become as one,
Yet they are individuals,
Each with their own ideas and goals.
In a marriage, two people share their thoughts,
They give advice, sharing their feelings,
Being open and loving.
They must trust each other and hold onto faith,
While going through ups and downs.
They have their smiles,
and they have their tears.
When one is low, it is up to the other to support
Them, to get them back on the right track.
Communications is the key.
Two people united learn so much.
They learn to depend yet be independent,
Sometimes letting each other have time to themselves.
They care for each other and protect;
They make a family and become a lifeline.
They bring their dreams, their future,
Loving and growing together.
With their commitment and true love,
They find happiness. Michele Gallagher Back to top
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
Oh no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. William Shakespeare Back to top
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. William Shakepeare Back to top
You're The One For Me You're the one for me.
Your eyes are like fire on a cold winter's day
Your soul burns within me
Your touch blossoms my innermost passions
And your voice melts my heart.
You're the one for me.
You are the key to unlocking
My most sacred fantasies.
You're the one for me,
The one that wakens me
When I'm at my deepest sleep
With your passionate ways,
The one that rivets me with
Your beautiful, unique face.
You're the one for me.
You are the one that I want to share
My life, my love with for all eternity.
I will love you always and forever.
You're the one for me. Dallas Fisher Back to top
Marriage is... Marriage is a dynamic process of discovery.
Marriage is a journey, not an arrival.
In marriage, being the right person is as important as finding the right person.
Marriage is starting to love, over and over again.
Marriage is a life's work.
Marriage is an art...and like any creative process, it requires active thought and effort.
We have to learn how to share on many different levels.
We need to practice talking from the heart, and understanding attitudes as well as words.
Giving generously and receiving graciously are talents that are available to anyone.
But these skills need to be developed, if the marriage picture that we paint is to be anything like the masterpiece intended. Anon Back to top
I Will Be Here If in the morning when you wake,
If the sun does not appear,
I will be here.
If in the dark we lose sight of love,
Hold my hand and have no fear,
I will be here. I will be here,
When you feel like being quiet,
When you need to speak your mind I will listen.
Through the winning, losing, and trying we'll be together,
And I will be here.
If in the morning when you wake,
If the future is unclear,
I will be here.
As sure as seasons were made for change,
Our lifetimes were made for years,
I will be here. I will be here,
And you can cry on my shoulder,
When the mirror tells us we're older.
I will hold you, to watch you grow in beauty,
And tell you all the things you are to me.
We'll be together and I will be here.
I will be true to the promises I've made,
To you and to the one who gave you to me.
I will be here. Steven Curtis Chapman Back to top
I Promise I promise to give you the best of myself
And to ask of you no more than you can give.
I promise to respect you as your own person
and to realise that your interests, desires
and needs are no less important than my own.
I promise to share with you my time and my attention
And to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship.
I promise to keep myself open to you,
To let you see through the window of my world into
My innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.
I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face changes
In order to keep our relationship alive and exciting.
I promise to love you in good times and in bad
with all I have to give and all I feel inside
In the only way I know how.
Completely and forever. Dorothy R Colgan Back to top
A Spring Morning The Spring comes in with all her hues and smells,
In freshness breathing over hills and dells;
O'er woods where May her gorgeous drapery flings'
And meads washed fragrant by their laughing springs.
Fresh are new opened flowers, untouched and free
from the bold rifling of the amorous bee.
The happy time of singing birds is come,
And Love's lone pilgrimage now finds a home;
Among the mossy oaks now coos the dove,
And the hoarse crow finds softer notes for love.
The foxes play around their dens, and dark
In joy's excess, mid woodland shadows dark,
The flowers join lips below; the leaves above;
And every sound that meets the ear is Love. John Clare Back to top
The Bargain My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange one for another given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven:
My true love hath my heart, and I have his. His heart in me keeps him and me in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his because in me it bides:
My true love hath my heart, and I have his. Sir Philip Sidney Back to top
Marriage The die is cast, come weal, come woe,
Two lives are joined together,
For better or for worse, the link
Which naught but death can sever.
The die is cast, come grief, come joy.
Come richer, or come poorer,
If love but binds the mystic tie,
Blest is the bridal hour. Mary Weston Fordham Back to top
Yes, I'll Marry You Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,
And here's the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry,
And if we here a knocking
And it's creepy and it's late,
I hand you the torch you see,
And you investigate. Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,
You may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It's you that has to mend it,
You have to face the neighbour
Should our labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me
It's you that has to whack him. Yes, I'll marry you,
You're virile and you're lean,
My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,
As I do chipolatas,
You can cook it every night! It's you who has to work the drill
And put up curtain track,
And when I've got PMT it's you who
Gets the flack,
I do see great advantages,
But none of them for you,
As so before you see the light,
I do, I do, I do! Pam Ayres Back to top
A Marriage...makes of two fractional lives a whole;
It gives to two purposeless lives a work,
And doubles the strength of each to perform it;
It gives to two questioning natures a reason for living,
And something to live for;
It will give a new gladness to the sunshine,
A new fragrance to the flowers,
A new beauty to the earth,
And a new mystery to life. Mark Twain Back to top
Crazy with Love I know every bump, every bulge, every wrinkle.
Every sag, every bag, every scar, every flaw, every whisker.
I know that you fleck the bathroom tiles with shaving foam,
That you flood the floor with bath water,
That you never take your plate out to the sink,
That you strew your clothes,
That you forget to change your socks,
That you tell me the endings of detective novels,
That you track mud through the house,
That you never remember to pay the paper bill.
I know your eccentricities, your prejudices, your moods.
And somehow, for some reason I can never fully understand,
I am crazy with love for you. Charlotte Gray Back to top
To My Bride To my bride, I give you my heart
Sharing love each day, from the very start
To my bride, I give you my kiss
Filling each day with joy and bliss
To my bride, I give you my being
To love, to play, to work and to sing
To my bride, I give you my mind
Learning each day to be more kind
To my bride, I give you my soul
Growing together to be more whole
To my bride, I give you my life
Rejoicing each day that you are my wife. Steven Reiser Back to top
A Man's Requirement Love me, sweet with all thou art,
Feeling, thinking, seeing -
Love me in the lightest part,
Love me in full being.
Love me with thine open mouth
In its frank surrender,
With the vowing of thy mouth
With its silence tender.
Love me with thine hands stretched out
Freely - open-minded;
Love me with thy loitering foot
Hearing one behind it.
Love me with thy voice that turns
Sudden faint behind me;
Love me with thy blush that burns
When I murmur - love me. Elizabeth Barrett Browning Back to top
If Thou Must Love Me If thou must love me, let it be for naught
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
'I love her for her smile - her look - her way
Of speaking gently, for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day' -
For these things in themselves, beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee - and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity. Elizabeth Barrett Browning Back to top
Partners The first dance of all when they danced heart to heart
They knew, they both knew, it was only the start
Of something more wonderful that a mere dance
More than a thrill of a passing romance. They knew without saying the Love, the real thing
Had touched them that night with its shimmering wing.
No word had been spoken and yet they both knew
That suddenly all sorts of dreams had come true. It's many a year since the night that they met
But that first dance they will never forget
Then a boy and a girl and now a husband and wife
Still happy, still dancing and partners for life Patience Strong Back to top
Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her If questioning would make us wise|
No eyes would ever gaze in eyes;
If all our tale were told in speech
No mouths would wander each to each. Were spirits free from mortal mesh
And love not bound in hearts of flesh
No aching breasts would yearn to meet
And find their ecstasy complete. For who is there that lives and knows
The secret powers by which he grows?
Were knowledge all, what were our need
To thrill and faint and sweetly bleed? Then seek not, sweet, the "If" and "Why"
I love you now until I die.
For I must love because I live
And life in me is what you give. Christopher Brennan Back to top
The Passionate Shepherd To His Love Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals. And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle,
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle. A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold. A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs,
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love. The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love. Christopher Marlowe Back to top
Marriage is a promise of love Marriage is a commitment to life - to the best that two people
Can find and bring out in each other. It offers opportunities for
Sharing and growth no other human relationship can equal, a
Physical and emotional joining that is promised for a lifetime. Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life's
Most important relationships. A wife and husband are each
Other's best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, listener and critic.
There may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing,
And the love of each other may resemble the tender caring of a
Parent for a child. Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life. Happiness is
Fuller; memories are fresher; commitment is stronger; even anger is
Felt more strongly and passes away more quickly. Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes life is unable to avoid.
It encourages and nurtures new life, now experiences, and new
Ways of expressing love through the seasons of life. When two people pledge to love and care for each other in
Marriage, they create a spirit unique to themselves, which binds
Them closer than any spoken or written words. Marriage is a
Promise, a potential, made in the hearts of two people who love,
Which takes a lifetime to fulfil. Edmund O'Neill Back to top
Amo ergo sum Because I love
The sun pours out its rays of living gold
Pours out its gold and silver on the sea. Because I love
The earth upon her astral spindle winds
Her ecstasy-producing dance. Because I love
Clouds travel on the winds through wide skies,
Skies wide and beautiful, blue and deep. Because I love
Wind blows white sails,
The wind blows over flowers, the sweet wind blows. Because I love
The ferns grow green, and green the grass, and green
The transparent sunlit trees. Because I love
Larks rise up from the grass
And all the leaves are full of singing birds. Because I love
The iridescent shells upon the sand
Take forms as fine and intricate as thought. Because I love
There is an invisible way across the sky,
Birds travel by that way, the sun and moon
And all the stars travel that path by night. Because I love
There is a river flowing all night long. Because I love
All night the river flows into my sleep.
Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,
And sleeping wake, and flowing are rest. Because I love
The summer air quivers with a thousand wings,
Myriads of jewelled eyes burn in the light. Kathleen Raine Back to top
Reprise Geniuses of countless nations
Have told their love for generations
Till all their memorable phrases
Are common as goldenrod or daisies.
Their girls have glimmered like the moon,
Or shimmered like a summer moon,
Stood like a lily, fled like a fawn,
Now the sunset, now the dawn,
Here the princess in the tower
There the sweet forbidden flower.
Darling, when I look at you
Every aged phrase is new,
And there are moments when it seems
I've married one of Shakespeare's dreams. Ogden Nash Back to top
Heirloom She gave me childhood's flowers,
Heather and wild thyme,
Eyebright and tormentil,
Lichen's mealy cup
Dry on the wind-scored stone,
The corbies on the rock,
The rowan by the burn. Sea-marvels a child beheld
Out in a fisherman's boat,
Fringed pulsing violet
Medusa, sea-gooseberries,
Starfish on the sea-floor,
Cowries and rainbow-shells
From pools on a rocky shore. Gave me her memories,
But kept her last treasure:
'When I was a lass,' she said,
'Sitting among the heather,
Suddenly I saw
That the moor was all alive!
I have told no one before.' That was my mother's tale.
Seventy years had gone
Since she saw the living skein
Of which the world is woven,
And having seen, knew all;
Through long indifferent years
Treasuring the priceless pearl. Kathleen Raine Back to top
For the Bride and Groom Love is the most incredible of all experiences that touch our lives.
It creates for us the world that we want to live in.
From the beginning of our lives,
we know that love is the power that comforts and protects us;
it is the one feeling that we can depend on to help us through life's ups and downs.
Love is the understanding and security that never changes;
it allows us to be ourselves and feel self-confident. Today, as the two of you join together and commit your love to each other,
remember the lessons of love that you have always known.
Let your love comfort, support and encourage you.
Let your love be the best part of your lives;
always know that it will make everything better,
and it will make your world a place of happiness. Dena Di Jaconi Back to top
Only Our Love Only our love hath no decay;
This, no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday,
Running it never runs from us away,
But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day John Donne Back to top
The Good Morrow I wonder, by my troth, what thou, and I
Did, till we lov'd? were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den?
T'was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desir'd, and got, t'was but a dreame of thee. And now good morrow to our waking soules,
Which watch not one another out of feare;
For love, all love of other sights controules,
And makes one little roome, an every where.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,
Let us possesse one world, each hath one, and is one. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares,
And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest,
Where can we finde two better hemispheares
Without sharpe North, without declining West?
What ever dyes, was not mixt equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die. John Donne Back to top
O Tell Me the Truth about Love Some say that Love's a little boy
And some say he's a bird,
And some say he makes the world go round
And some say that's absurd:
But when I asked the man next door
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife was very cross indeed
And said it wouldn't do. Does it look like a pair of pyjamas
Or the ham in a temperance hotel,
Does its odour remind one of llamas
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is
Or soft as eiderdown fluff,
Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edge?
O tell me the truth about love. The history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes,
And it's a common topic on
The Trans-Atlantic boats;
I've found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides,
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides. Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian
Or boom like a military band,
Could one give a first-class imitation
On a saw or a Steinway Grand,
Is its singing at parties a riot,
Does it only like Classical stuff,
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love. I looked inside the summer-house,
It wasn't ever there,
I've tried the Thames at Maidenhead
And Brighton's bracing air;
I don't know what the blackbird sang
or what the roses said,
But it wasn't in the chicken-run
Or underneath the bed. Can it pull extraordinary faces,
Is it usually sick on a swing,
Does it spend all its time at the races
Or fiddling with pieces of string,
Has it views of its own about money,
Does it think Patriotism enough,
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love. Your feelings when you meet it, I
Am told you can't forget'
I've sought it since I was a child
But haven't found it yet;
I'm getting on for thirty-five,
And still I do not know
What kind of creature it can be
That bothers people so. When it comes, will it come without warning
Just as I'm picking my nose,
Will it knock on my door in the morning
Or tread in the bus on my toes,
Will it come like a change in the weather,
Will its greeting be courteous or bluff,
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love. W H Auden Back to top
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