Monday February 13, 2012
We’ve plumped up our anthology of classic love poems for Valentine’s Day this year, so you’re sure to find a great poem to declare your heart to the one you love. Here are the new additions:
- “To Anthea Who May Command Him Anything, ” by Robert Herrick (1648)
Bid me to live, and I will live
Thy protestant to be;
Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee....
- “Answer to a Child’s Question, ” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1802)
....he sings, and he sings; and for ever sings he—
‘I love my Love, and my Love loves me!’
- “Love’s Philosophy, ” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1819)
....the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
- “I Do Not Love Thee, ” by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton (1829)
I do not love thee!—no! I do not love thee!
And yet when thou art absent I am sad;
And envy even the bright blue sky above thee,
Whose quiet stars may see thee and be glad....
- “A Birthday, ” by Christina Rossetti (1861)
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;...
- “In Excelsis, ” by Amy Lowell (1922)
You—you—
Your shadow is sunlight on a plate of silver;
Your footsteps, the seeding-place of lilies;
Your hands moving, a chime of bells across a windless air....
- “To Earthward, ” by Robert Frost (1923)
Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear;
And once that seemed too much;
I lived on air....
Thursday February 9, 2012
Wednesday February 1, 2012
Today marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of James Mercer Langston Hughes, the unofficial poet laureate of Black American life and culture, a radical democrat at the center of the Harlem Renaissance, lyrical poet incorporating the traditions of Black music—jazz and blues—in his poems, humorous storyteller, political activist and playwright, passionate advocate of African American pride, civil rights and artistic freedom. What more fitting way to mark the beginning of Black History Month than to read some of his best-loved poems:
More on Langston Hughes:
Biographical Profile of Hughes
Books by Langston Hughes
A Trio of New Poems by Langston Hughes (2009)
Langston Hughes’ Home Brought Back to Artistic Life (2007)
Tuesday January 31, 2012
Years ago, in gathering our anthology of Classic Love Poems for Valentine’s Day, we focused on straightforward declarations of love, poems of seduction and promise, celebrating the beauties and virtues of the beloved and forging the love-bond between two people. But of course, this leaves out the many great love poems of other kinds, the poems of unrequited or forbidden or lost love. For example, from Robert Burns we chose his best-known “Song—A Red, Red Rose” and left out his despairing farewell between two lovers who cannot stay together, “Ae Fond Kiss.”
We’d like to expand our collection to include the best of these “other” kinds of love poems, with your help, Dear Readers. Please visit our collection of readers’ favorite love poems and tell us about yours, especially if it’s a poem about lost or forbidden love.