Status Updates From Poems of Love (Signature Se...

Both “Mid-Rapture” and “I Loved You First” were incredibly enjoyable, but to pit the two against each other, I connected more with “I Loved You First.” Really enjoyed the feeling, rhythm, and message of the poem.

“Sonnet XLIII” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning has a certain simplicity to it that builds to the loving punch at the end. Very strong, it made me feel. I felt like I was in her place, understanding her, being her.

My GOSH, “Remembrance” by Emily Brontë. Good Lord, that is a sad (yet beautiful) poem of grief. It’s made all the sadder by *literally* just earlier today before reading this poem, my brother going into detail about the Brontë family and how they practically all died before they hit 40, some significantly younger. Dear goodness talk about tragedy. This poem shows how love shows through grief.

“Regret” by Charlotte Brontë.

I enjoyed how this showcased life and love lost, and the willingness to return to love if given the chance. Much more to it that would benefit me from re-reading, I’m sure.

Leigh Hunt puts it in “A Love-Lesson” on page 26.

“Not that I’d have my pleasure incomplete,
Or lose the kiss for which my lips beset you;
But that in suffering me to take it, sweet,
I’d have you say, “No, no! I will not let you!”

Need I say more?

How scandalous! 90% joking, 10% not, especially in regards to “The Kiss” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
“The whispered “No!” — how little meant!
Sweet falsehood that endears consent!”
Then later,
“And tempts with feigned dissuasion coy
The gentle violence of joy.”
Wow, Mr. Coleridge.
I understand and relate, regarding the “playfully non-consensual consensual play” but more so in the way that

“Song - Mediocrity In Love Rejected” on page 23 is a nice, understandable/relatable human feeling. No one wants to be trapped in a sea of middling mediocrity.

“To His Coy Mistress” however, on the following page certainly lives up to the section “Passionate Love.”
“Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”
Oh my indeed as they talk of fire and pleasure and devouring!

Oh, “The Tide of Love” by Thomas Hood on page 17, bravo! Hooray! Magnifico!

What an excellent display of artistry, painting a scene of steadfast similitude, then driving home the point to his love. “My tide of life is true to thee.” Just excellent. Undying, unyielding, true, steadfast love personified in a poem. Wonderful and beautiful.

considering Shelley’s relationship with his literary titan of a wife and their open marriage. I can see the poem being charming and cheeky in a committed relationship, however, but it reads like a flirt, rather than a genuine expression of love.

I enjoyed the symmetry and pairings of each duo though and how he painted the various pictures.

Just read “Love’s Philosophy” on page 16 by Percy Shelley. I quite liked the pairings throughout, the rhyme scheme, the poetic imagery, but the final line of each stanza has just the slightest tinge of misogyny that, not so much taints the poem, but rather prevents it from being the best it could be in my mind. It does, as paradoxical as it sounds, offer a certain charm due to it, and all in all, it makes sense

Just realizing I skipped pages 16 and 17! I’ll have to go back to them next!

I quite enjoyed “How Many Times.” A particular picture of an undying eternal love. Uplifting and beautiful.

I’m afraid I might need a more critical reading of “Vivien’s Song” to properly appreciate it, but I did enjoy reading it.

I truly enjoyed “Invitation to Love” as it mirrors how I always wish for my Love to be near.

I really loved the final stanza of “Echoes” by Thomas Moore on page 14.
“The sigh that’s breathed for one to hear,
Is by that one, that only dear,
Breathed back again.”
It evokes an image of love, of mutual orgasming, of mutual pleasure and oneness.

“She walks in beauty like the night” on the following page reminds me so genuinely of my own Love. Especially that last stanza. Soft and innocent.

Beautiful. Especially “She Was a Phantom Delight”

“The Dream” is also very provocative; it dances across my mind, playing out. Picturing myself as the narrator, my Love as the one narrated to.

Most incredible is the comparison to an angel at first sight, then as they knew each other deeper, that he realized it would be “Profane to think thee anything but thee.” She is greater to me than an angel. She is her. The best she could be.

I’m afraid George Wither and I have the most similar manner of thinking when it comes to the robbery described in “On a Stolen Kiss.” I love how this poem ends.

I’ve just realized now I don’t think I’ve ever really read any of Dante’s poetry before. Quite nice, this one on page 3 to open up the collection.

How I love Shakespeare’s sonnet structure. I need to write more within it. I just ordered a copy of his complete sonnet collection.

For being under “Discreet Love,” Ben Johnson’s “To Cecilia” is quite provocative but in a delicate sort of way. Love it