'T were all one

That I should love a bright particular star,

And think to wed it.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 1.

'T is said that absence conquers love;

But oh believe it not!

I 've tried, alas! its power to prove,

But thou art not forgot.

Frederick W. Thomas (1808-1866): Absence conquers Love.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder:

Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!

Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839): Isle of Beauty.

Alas for love, if thou wert all,

And naught beyond, O Earth!

John Keble (1792-1866): The Graves of a Household.

Friendship is constant in all other things

Save in the office and affairs of love:

Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;

Let every eye negotiate for itself

And trust no agent.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Beyond this vale of tears

There is a life above,

Unmeasured by the flight of years;

And all that life is love.

James Montgomery (1771-1854): The Issues of Life and Death.

When he shall die,

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night,

And pay no worship to the garish sun.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,

In every gesture dignity and love.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 488.

It sounds like stories from the land of spirits

If any man obtains that which he merits,

Or any merit that which he obtains.

  .   .   .   .   .   .   .

Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends!

Hath he not always treasures, always friends,

The good great man? Three treasures,—love and light,

And calm thoughts, regular as infants' breath;

And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,—

Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Complaint. Ed. 1852. The Good Great Man. Ed. 1893.

To know, to esteem, to love, and then to part,

Makes up life's tale to many a feeling heart!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): On taking Leave of ——, 1817.

She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;

And humble cares, and delicate fears;

A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;

And love and thought and joy.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Sparrow's Nest.

Smiles from reason flow,

To brute deny'd, and are of love the food.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 239.

I never tempted her with word too large,

But, as a brother to his sister, show'd

Bashful sincerity and comely love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Then let thy love be younger than thyself,

Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.

When love begins to sicken and decay,

It useth an enforced ceremony.

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Thy fatal shafts unerring move,

I bow before thine altar, Love!

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771): Roderick Random. Chap. xl.

  Ham.  Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

  Oph.  'T is brief, my lord.

  Ham.  As woman's love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

A Briton even in love should be

A subject, not a slave!

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Ere with Cold Beads of Midnight Dew.

This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,

May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

A generous friendship no cold medium knows,

Burns with one love, with one resentment glows.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book ix. Line 725.

To business that we love we rise betime,

And go to 't with delight.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 4.

To see her is to love her,

And love but her forever;

For Nature made her what she is,

And never made anither!

Robert Burns (1759-1796): Bonny Lesley.

A mighty pain to love it is,

And 't is a pain that pain to miss;

But of all pains, the greatest pain

It is to love, but love in vain.

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667): From Anacreon, vii. Gold.

Of all the days that's in the week

I dearly love but one day,

And that's the day that comes betwixt

A Saturday and Monday.

Henry Carey (1663-1743): Sally in our Alley.

Oh that the desert were my dwelling-place,

With one fair spirit for my minister,

That I might all forget the human race,

And hating no one, love but only her!

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 177.

They sin who tell us love can die;

With life all other passions fly,

All others are but vanity.

.   .   .   .   .

Love is indestructible,

Its holy flame forever burneth;

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth.

.   .   .   .   .

It soweth here with toil and care,

But the harvest-time of love is there.

Robert Southey (1774-1843): The Curse of Kehama. Canto x. Stanza 10.

None without hope e'er lov'd the brightest fair,

But love can hope where reason would despair.

Lord Lyttleton (1709-1773): Epigram.

The cold in clime are cold in blood,

Their love can scarce deserve the name.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Giaour. Line 1099.

My merry, merry, merry roundelay

Concludes with Cupid's curse:

They that do change old love for new,

Pray gods, they change for worse!

George Peele (1552-1598): Cupid's Curse.

O, hell! to choose love by another's eyes.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.

All love is sweet,

Given or returned. Common as light is love,

And its familiar voice wearies not ever.

 .   .   .   .   .

They who inspire it most are fortunate,

As I am now; but those who feel it most

Are happier still.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): Prometheus Unbound. Act ii. Sc. 5.

When love could teach a monarch to be wise,

And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes.

Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune;

He had not the method of making a fortune.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): On his own Character.

For aught that I could ever read,

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.

The spinsters and the knitters in the sun

And the free maids that weave their thread with bones

Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,

And dallies with the innocence of love,

Like the old age.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Death forerunneth Love to win

"Sweetest eyes were ever seen."

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1809-1861): Catarina to Camoens. ix.

For love deceives the best of womankind.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book xv. Line 463.

Dear as remember'd kisses after death,

And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd

On lips that are for others; deep as love,—

Deep as first love, and wild with all regret.

Oh death in life, the days that are no more!

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): The Princess. Part iv. Line 36.

Could we forbear dispute and practise love,

We should agree as angels do above.

Edmund Waller (1605-1687): Divine Love. Canto iii.

Love divine, all love excelling,

Joy of heaven to earth come down.

Divine Love.

Of right and wrong he taught

Truths as refined as ever Athens heard;

And (strange to tell!) he practised what he preached.

John Armstrong (1709-1779): The Art of Preserving Health. Book iv. Line 301.

This is the very ecstasy of love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Fool, not to know that love endures no tie,

And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Palamon and Arcite. Book ii. Line 758.

O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee

To temper man: we had been brutes without you.

Angels are painted fair, to look like you:

There's in you all that we believe of heaven,—

Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,

Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

Thomas Otway (1651-1685): Venice Preserved. Act i. Sc. 1.

When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!

John Dryden (1631-1701): Cymon and Iphigenia. Line 41.

It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.

Down on your knees,

And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man's love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 5.

My days are in the yellow leaf;

The flowers and fruits of love are gone;

The worm, the canker, and the grief

Are mine alone!

Lord Byron 1788-1824: On my Thirty-sixth Year.

Curse on all laws but those which love has made!

Love, free as air at sight of human ties,

Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Eloisa to Abelard. Line 74.

Friendship is constant in all other things

Save in the office and affairs of love:

Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;

Let every eye negotiate for itself

And trust no agent.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.

A friendship that like love is warm;

A love like friendship, steady.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): How shall I woo?

For I say this is death and the sole death,—

When a man's loss comes to him from his gain,

Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance,

And lack of love from love made manifest.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): A Death in the Desert.

You say to me-wards your affection's strong;

Pray love me little, so you love me long.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Love me Little, Love me Long.

God gives us love. Something to love

He lends us; but when love is grown

To ripeness, that on which it throve

Falls off, and love is left alone.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): To J. S.

A mighty pain to love it is,

And 't is a pain that pain to miss;

But of all pains, the greatest pain

It is to love, but love in vain.

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667): From Anacreon, vii. Gold.

God gives us love. Something to love

He lends us; but when love is grown

To ripeness, that on which it throve

Falls off, and love is left alone.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): To J. S.

Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source

Of human offspring.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 750.

Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove

The pangs of guilty power and hapless love!

Rest here, distressed by poverty no more;

Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before;

Sleep undisturb'd within this peaceful shrine,

Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Epitaph on Claudius Philips, the Musician.

They sin who tell us love can die;

With life all other passions fly,

All others are but vanity.

.   .   .   .   .

Love is indestructible,

Its holy flame forever burneth;

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth.

.   .   .   .   .

It soweth here with toil and care,

But the harvest-time of love is there.

Robert Southey (1774-1843): The Curse of Kehama. Canto x. Stanza 10.

Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace

The day's disasters in his morning face;

Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee

At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;

Full well the busy whisper circling round

Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd.

Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught,

The love he bore to learning was in fault;

The village all declar'd how much he knew,

'T was certain he could write and cipher too.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 199.

He spake of love, such love as spirits feel

In worlds whose course is equable and pure;

No fears to beat away, no strife to heal,—

The past unsighed for, and the future sure.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Laodamia.

Did you ever hear of Captain Wattle?

He was all for love, and a little for the bottle.

Charles Dibdin (1745-1814): Captain Wattle and Miss Roe.

She was good as she was fair,

None—none on earth above her!

As pure in thought as angels are:

To know her was to love her.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855): Jacqueline. Stanza 1.

But to see her was to love her,

Love but her, and love forever.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): Ae Fond Kiss.

But how can he expect that others should

Build for him, sow for him, and at his call

Love him, who for himself will take no heed at all?

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Resolution and Independence. Stanza 6.

And you must love him, ere to you

He will seem worthy of your love.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): A Poet's Epitaph. Stanza 11.

He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;

Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading;

Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,

But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.

And how should I know your true love

From many another one?

Oh, by his cockle hat and staff,

And by his sandal shoone.

Thomas Percy (1728-1811): The Friar of Orders Gray.

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage;

If I have freedom in my love,

And in my soul am free,

Angels alone that soar above

Enjoy such liberty.

Richard Lovelace (1618-1658): To Althea from Prison, iv.

If there's delight in love, 't is when I see

That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.

William Congreve (1670-1729): The Way of the World. Act iii. Sc. 12.

Alas for love, if thou wert all,

And naught beyond, O Earth!

John Keble (1792-1866): The Graves of a Household.

By the margin of fair Zurich's waters

Dwelt a youth, whose fond heart, night and day,

For the fairest of fair Zurich's daughters

In a dream of love melted away.

Charles Dance (1794-1863): Fair Zurich's Waters.

Love in a hut, with water and a crust,

Is—Love, forgive us!—cinders, ashes, dust.

John Keats (1795-1821): Lamia. Part ii.

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,

In every gesture dignity and love.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 488.

And is there care in Heaven? And is there love

In heavenly spirits to these Creatures bace?

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Faerie Queene. Book ii. Canto viii. St. 1.

O Love! in such a wilderness as this.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844): Gertrude of Wyoming. Part iii. Stanza 1.

Love in your hearts as idly burns

As fire in antique Roman urns.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 309.

Love is a boy by poets styl'd;

Then spare the rod and spoil the child.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 843.

But love is blind, and lovers cannot see

The pretty follies that themselves commit.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 6.

Nose, nose, nose, nose!

And who gave thee that jolly red nose?

Sinament and Ginger, Nutmegs and Cloves,

And that gave me my jolly red nose.

Ravenscroft: Deuteromela, Song No. 7. (1609.)

Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like;

Friendship is a sheltering tree;

Oh the joys that came down shower-like,

Of friendship, love, and liberty,

Ere I was old!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Youth and Age.

God gives us love. Something to love

He lends us; but when love is grown

To ripeness, that on which it throve

Falls off, and love is left alone.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): To J. S.

In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed;

In war, he mounts the warrior's steed;

In halls, in gay attire is seen;

In hamlets, dances on the green.

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,

And men below and saints above;

For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto iii. Stanza 1.

They sin who tell us love can die;

With life all other passions fly,

All others are but vanity.

.   .   .   .   .

Love is indestructible,

Its holy flame forever burneth;

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth.

.   .   .   .   .

It soweth here with toil and care,

But the harvest-time of love is there.

Robert Southey (1774-1843): The Curse of Kehama. Canto x. Stanza 10.

God gives us love. Something to love

He lends us; but when love is grown

To ripeness, that on which it throve

Falls off, and love is left alone.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): To J. S.

She was a form of life and light

That seen, became a part of sight,

And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye,

The morning-star of memory!

Yes, love indeed is light from heaven;

A spark of that immortal fire

With angels shared, by Alla given,

To lift from earth our low desire.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Giaour. Line 1127.

Oh, my luve's like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June;

Oh, my luve's like the melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): A Red, Red Rose.

The rose is fairest when 't is budding new,

And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.

The rose is sweetest wash'd with morning dew,

And love is loveliest when embalm'd in tears.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lady of the Lake. Canto iv. Stanza 1.

I tell thee Love is Nature's second sun,

Causing a spring of virtues where he shines.

George Chapman (1557-1634): All Fools. Act i. Sc. 1.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments: love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Sonnet cxvi.

All love is sweet,

Given or returned. Common as light is love,

And its familiar voice wearies not ever.

 .   .   .   .   .

They who inspire it most are fortunate,

As I am now; but those who feel it most

Are happier still.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): Prometheus Unbound. Act ii. Sc. 5.

True love's the gift which God has given

To man alone beneath the heaven:

It is not fantasy's hot fire,

Whose wishes soon as granted fly;

It liveth not in fierce desire,

With dead desire it doth not die;

It is the secret sympathy,

The silver link, the silken tie,

Which heart to heart and mind to mind

In body and in soul can bind.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto v. Stanza 13.

In many ways doth the full heart reveal

The presence of the love it would conceal.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Motto to Poems written in Later Life.

Though last, not least in love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Curse on all laws but those which love has made!

Love, free as air at sight of human ties,

Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Eloisa to Abelard. Line 74.

Let those love now who never loved before;

Let those who always loved, now love the more.

Thomas Parnell (1679-1717): Translation of the Pervigilium Veneris.

It sounds like stories from the land of spirits

If any man obtains that which he merits,

Or any merit that which he obtains.

  .   .   .   .   .   .   .

Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends!

Hath he not always treasures, always friends,

The good great man? Three treasures,—love and light,

And calm thoughts, regular as infants' breath;

And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,—

Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Complaint. Ed. 1852. The Good Great Man. Ed. 1893.

The light of love, the purity of grace,

The mind, the music breathing from her face,

The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,—

And oh, that eye was in itself a soul!

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Stanza 6.

A friendship that like love is warm;

A love like friendship, steady.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): How shall I woo?

Come live with me, and be my love;

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dales and fields,

Woods or steepy mountain yields.

Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593): The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee, and be thy love.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): The Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.

There shall be no love lost.

Ben Jonson (1573-1637): Every Man out of his Humour. Act ii. Sc. 1.

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,—

A maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): She dwelt among the untrodden ways.

Love me litle, love me long.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ii.

Love me little, love me long.

Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593): The Jew of Malta. Act iv.

You say to me-wards your affection's strong;

Pray love me little, so you love me long.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Love me Little, Love me Long.

Love me, love my dog.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.

Mightier far

Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway

Of magic potent over sun and star,

Is Love, though oft to agony distrest,

And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Laodamia.

A mighty pain to love it is,

And 't is a pain that pain to miss;

But of all pains, the greatest pain

It is to love, but love in vain.

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667): From Anacreon, vii. Gold.

All thoughts, all passions, all delights,

Whatever stirs this mortal frame,

All are but ministers of Love,

And feed his sacred flame.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Love.

If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again! it had a dying fall:

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odour!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 1.

I have heard of reasons manifold

Why Love must needs be blind,

But this the best of all I hold,—

His eyes are in his mind.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): To a Lady, Offended by a Sportive Observation.

Her father loved me; oft invited me;

Still question'd me the story of my life,

From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,

That I have passed.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days,

To the very moment that he bade me tell it:

Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,

Of moving accidents by flood and field,

Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,

Of being taken by the insolent foe

And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence

And portance in my travels' history;

Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,

Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven,

It was my hint to speak,—such was the process;

And of the Cannibals that each other eat,

The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads

Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear

Would Desdemona seriously incline.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.

Nature is fine in love, and where 't is fine,

It sends some precious instance of itself

After the thing it loves.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.

Doubt thou the stars are fire;

Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Like to the Pontic sea,

Whose icy current and compulsive course

Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on

To the Propontic and the Hellespont,

Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,

Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,

Till that a capable and wide revenge

Swallow them up.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Scion of chiefs and monarchs, where art thou?

Fond hope of many nations, art thou dead?

Could not the grave forget thee, and lay low

Some less majestic, less beloved head?

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 168.

Let those love now who never loved before;

Let those who always loved, now love the more.

Thomas Parnell (1679-1717): Translation of the Pervigilium Veneris.

O love! O fire! once he drew

With one long kiss my whole soul through

My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Fatima. Stanza 3.

The tree of deepest root is found

Least willing still to quit the ground:

'T was therefore said by ancient sages,

That love of life increased with years

So much, that in our latter stages,

When pain grows sharp and sickness rages,

The greatest love of life appears.

Mrs Thrale (1739-1821): Three Warnings.

I 've wandered east, I 've wandered west,

Through many a weary way;

But never, never can forget

The love of life's young day.

William Motherwell (1797-1835): Jeannie Morrison.

To him who in the love of Nature holds

Communion with her visible forms, she speaks

A various language.

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878): Thanatopsis.

The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art,

Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 51.

Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle

Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime;

Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,

Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Bride of Abydos. Canto i. Stanza 1.

Alas, the love of women! it is known

To be a lovely and a fearful thing.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto ii. Stanza 199.

Friendship is constant in all other things

Save in the office and affairs of love:

Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;

Let every eye negotiate for itself

And trust no agent.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Love on through all ills, and love on till they die.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): Lalla Rookh. The Light of the Harem.

Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,

After offence returning, to regain

Love once possess'd.

John Milton (1608-1674): Samson Agonistes. Line 1003.

Then fly betimes, for only they

Conquer Love that run away.

Thomas Carew (1589-1639): Conquest by Flight.

Pains of love be sweeter far

Than all other pleasures are.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Tyrannic Love. Act iv. Sc. 1.

The play's the thing

Wherein I 'll catch the conscience of the king.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Of all the paths [that] lead to a woman's love

Pity's the straightest.

Beaumont And Fletcher: The Knight of Malta. Act i. Sc. 1.

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,

But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,

Chaos is come again.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Pity's akin to love.

Thomas Southerne (1660-1746): Oroonoka. Act ii. Sc. 1.

For pity melts the mind to love.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Alexander's Feast. Line 96.

Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay;

And if in death still lovely, lovelier there;

Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 104.

For life, with all it yields of joy and woe,

And hope and fear (believe the aged friend),

Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love,—

How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): A Death in the Desert.

  Rom.  Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,

That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—

  Jul.  O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,

That monthly changes in her circled orb,

Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move

The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): The Progress of Poesy. I. 3, Line 16.

Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love,

But—why did you kick me down stairs?

J P Kemble (1757-1823): The Panel. Act i. Sc. 1.

In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed;

In war, he mounts the warrior's steed;

In halls, in gay attire is seen;

In hamlets, dances on the green.

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,

And men below and saints above;

For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto iii. Stanza 1.

Take, O, take those lips away,

That so sweetly were forsworn;

And those eyes, the break of day,

Lights that do mislead the morn:

But my kisses bring again, bring again;

Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Measure for Measure. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,

And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Wife of Bath. Her Prologue. Line 369.

  Duke.  And what's her history?

  Vio.  A blank, my lord. She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,

Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,

And with a green and yellow melancholy

She sat like patience on a monument,

Smiling at grief.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 29.

Silence in love bewrays more woe

Than words, though ne'er so witty:

A beggar that is dumb, you know,

May challenge double pity.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): The Silent Lover.

I never tempted her with word too large,

But, as a brother to his sister, show'd

Bashful sincerity and comely love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.

There was a sound of revelry by night,

And Belgium's capital had gather'd then

Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men.

A thousand hearts beat happily; and when

Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again,

And all went merry as a marriage bell.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iii. Stanza 21.

God gives us love. Something to love

He lends us; but when love is grown

To ripeness, that on which it throve

Falls off, and love is left alone.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): To J. S.

Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Speak low if you speak love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.

As sweet and musical

As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;

And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods

Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 3.

O, how this spring of love resembleth

The uncertain glory of an April day!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act i. Sc. 3.

A spring of love gush'd from my heart,

And I bless'd them unaware.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): The Ancient Mariner. Part iv.

For stony limits cannot hold love out.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

He spake of love, such love as spirits feel

In worlds whose course is equable and pure;

No fears to beat away, no strife to heal,—

The past unsighed for, and the future sure.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Laodamia.

Love taught him shame; and shame, with love at strife,

Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Cymon and Iphigenia. Line 133.

Down on your knees,

And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man's love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 5.

There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 1.

Of love that never found his earthly close,

What sequel? Streaming eyes and breaking hearts;

Or all the same as if he had not been?

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Love and Duty.

For all we know

Of what the blessed do above

Is, that they sing, and that they love.

Edmund Waller (1605-1687): While I listen to thy Voice.

A love that took an early root,

And had an early doom.

Thomas K Hervey (1799-1859): The Devil's Progress.

The hind that would be mated by the lion

Must die for love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 1.

Let those love now who never loved before;

Let those who always loved, now love the more.

Thomas Parnell (1679-1717): Translation of the Pervigilium Veneris.

And love the offender, yet detest the offence.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Eloisa to Abelard. Line 192.

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,

But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,

Chaos is come again.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Lov'd I not honour more.

Richard Lovelace (1618-1658): To Lucasta, on going to the Wars.

Still so gently o'er me stealing,

Mem'ry will bring back the feeling,

Spite of all my grief revealing,

That I love thee,—that I dearly love thee still.

Opera of La Sonnambula.

I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,

The reason why I cannot tell;

But this alone I know full well,

I do not love thee, Doctor Fell.

Tom Brown (1663-1704): Laconics.

I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,

I but know that I love thee whatever thou art.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): Come, rest in this Bosom.

Green be the turf above thee,

Friend of my better days!

None knew thee but to love thee,

Nor named thee but to praise.

Alfred Bunn (1790-1860): On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake.

England, with all thy faults I love thee still,

My country!

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 206.

In the first days

Of my distracting grief, I found myself

As women wish to be who love their lords.

John Home (1724-1808): Douglas. Act i. Sc. 1.

Then fly betimes, for only they

Conquer Love that run away.

Thomas Carew (1589-1639): Conquest by Flight.

All love is sweet,

Given or returned. Common as light is love,

And its familiar voice wearies not ever.

 .   .   .   .   .

They who inspire it most are fortunate,

As I am now; but those who feel it most

Are happier still.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): Prometheus Unbound. Act ii. Sc. 5.

In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Locksley Hall. Line 19.

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st

Live well: how long or short permit to heaven.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 553.

Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;

Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,

Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,

Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,

Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

William Congreve (1670-1729): The Mourning Bride. Act iii. Sc. 8.

'T is sweet to think that where'er we rove

We are sure to find something blissful and dear;

And that when we 're far from the lips we love,

We 've but to make love to the lips we are near.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): 'T is sweet to think.

I hate the day, because it lendeth light

To see all things, but not my love to see.

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Daphnaida, v. 407.

Too fair to worship, too divine to love.

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868): The Belvedere Apollo.

Who love too much, hate in the like extreme,

And both the golden mean alike condemn.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book xv. Line 79.

Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;

Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in music out of sight.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Locksley Hall. Line 33.

Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing,

Hope, and comfort from above;

Let us each, thy peace possessing,

Triumph in redeeming love.

Robert Hawker (1753-1827): Benediction.

Oh, be wiser thou!

Instructed that true knowledge leads to love.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree.

Poets are all who love, who feel great truths,

And tell them; and the truth of truths is love.

Philip James Bailey (1816-1902): Scene, Another and a Better World.

In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed;

In war, he mounts the warrior's steed;

In halls, in gay attire is seen;

In hamlets, dances on the green.

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,

And men below and saints above;

For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto iii. Stanza 1.

Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit,

The power of beauty I remember yet.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Cymon and Iphigenia. Line 1.

Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove

An unrelenting foe to love;

And when we meet a mutual heart,

Come in between and bid us part?

James Thomson (1700-1748): Song.

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee, and be thy love.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): The Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd.

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,

But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,

Chaos is come again.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

That man may last, but never lives,

Who much receives, but nothing gives;

Whom none can love, whom none can thank,—

Creation's blot, creation's blank.

Thomas Gibbons (1720-1785): When Jesus dwelt.

Men say, kinde will creepe where it may not goe.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.

Forty thousand brothers

Could not, with all their quantity of love,

Make up my sum.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.

When he shall die,

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night,

And pay no worship to the garish sun.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

The spinsters and the knitters in the sun

And the free maids that weave their thread with bones

Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,

And dallies with the innocence of love,

Like the old age.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Friendship is Love without his wings.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: L'Amitié est l'Amour sans Ailes.

Man's love is of man's life a thing apart;

'T is woman's whole existence.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 194.

And you must love him, ere to you

He will seem worthy of your love.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): A Poet's Epitaph. Stanza 11.

Alas! they had been friends in youth;

But whispering tongues can poison truth,

And constancy lives in realms above;

And life is thorny, and youth is vain,

And to be wroth with one we love

Doth work like madness in the brain.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Christabel. Part ii.

It is for homely features to keep home,—

They had their name thence; coarse complexions

And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply

The sampler and to tease the huswife's wool.

What need a vermeil-tinctur'd lip for that,

Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 748.

And the imperial votaress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,

And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.

This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;

Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,

The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,

Liege of all loiterers and malcontents.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act iii. Sc. 1.

I have heard the mavis singing

Its love-song to the morn;

I 've seen the dew-drop clinging

To the rose just newly born.

Charles Jefferys (1807-1865): Mary of Argyle.