Life in Love by Robert Browning

Life in Love by Robert Browning delights the heart in numerous ways, elaborating on that should take some time not available with me. Enjoy!

Life in Love by Robert Browning
(1812-1889)

Escape me?
Never---
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both,
Me the loving and you the loth
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear:
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed.
But what if I fail of my purpose here?
It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And, baffled, get up and begin again,---
So the chace takes up one's life ' that's all.
While, look but once from your farthest bound
At me so deep in the dust and dark,
No sooner the old hope goes to ground
Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark,
I shape me---
Ever
Removed!

† Jofer

O Mistress Mine by William Shakespeare

The legendary William Shakespeare indulges us tonight with his O Mistress Mine. Enjoy!

O Mistress Mine   by William Shakespeare

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies not plenty;
Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

† Jofer

The Indian To His Love by William Butler Yeats

A classic by William Butler Yeats, The Indian To His Love is an enjoyable selection from his vast library of poetry. Enjoy!

The Indian To His Love  from Crossways  by William Butler Yeats
(1865-1939)

The island dreams under the dawn
And great boughs drop tranquility;
The peahens dance on a smooth lawn,
A parrot sways upon a tree,
Raging at his own image in the enameled sea.

Here we will moor our lonely ship
And wander ever with woven hands,
Murmuring softly lip to lip,
Along the grass, along the sands,
Murmuring how far away are the unquiet lands:

How we alone of mortals are
Hid under quiet boughs apart,
While our love grows an Indian star,
A meteor of the burning heart,
One with the tide that gleams, the wings that gleam and dart,

The heavy boughs, the burnished dove
That moans and sighs a hundred days:
How when we die our shades will rove,
When eve has hushed the feathered ways,
With vapory foot sole by the water's drowsy blaze.

† Jofer

Love Arm'd by Aphra Behn

A new writer and a new piece - both true for me - for tonight. Aphra Behn amazes us with his Love Arm'd. Enjoy!

Love Arm'd by Aphra Behn
(1640?-1689)

Love in Fantastique Triumph satt,
Whilst bleeding Hearts around him flow'd,
For whom Fresh pains he did create,
And strange Tryanic power he show'd;
From thy Bright Eyes he took his fire,
Which round about, in sport he hurl'd;
But 'twas from mine he took desire,
Enough to undo the Amorous World.
From me he took his sighs and tears,
From thee his Pride and Crueltie;
From me his Languishments and Feares,
And every Killing Dart from thee;
Thus thou and I, the God have arm'd,
And sett him up a Deity;
But my poor Heart alone is harm'd,
Whilst thine the Victor is, and free.

† Jofer

To One in Paradise by Edgar Allan Poe

One of my most favorite writers, Edgar Allan Poe, indulges us with one of his most memorable pieces: To One in Paradise. Enjoy!

 To One in Paradise
(1834)
by Edgar Allan Poe
(1809-1849)

Thou wast all that to me, love,
    For which my soul did pine —
A green isle in the sea, love,
    A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
    And all the flowers were mine.

    Ah, dream too bright to last!
        Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
    But to be overcast!
        A voice from out the Future cries,
    "On! on!" —but o'er the Past
        (Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
    Mute, motionless, aghast!

    For, alas! alas! with me
        The light of Life is o'er!
    No more —no more —no more —
        (Such language holds the solemn sea
    To the sands upon the shore)
        Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
    Or the stricken eagle soar!

    And all my days are trances,
        And all my nightly dreams
    Are where thy gray eye glances,
        And where thy footsteps gleams —
    In what ethereal dances,
        By what eternal streams.

† Jofer

Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley's Love's Philosophy explores the very essence of the emotion with such imagery that depicts how genius the piece and the writer is. Enjoy!

Love's Philosophy
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1803-1822)

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle;--
Why not I with thine?

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained it's brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

† Jofer

The House of Clouds by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

While I continue to be plagued by a personal crossroad that seems to stem from the prospect of finally graduating from college, I'll offer several poetry for the succeeding days to quench the Lit Wit's soul. So enjoy this first selection, fresh out of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's muse.

The House of Clouds
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806-1861)

I would build a cloudy House
For my thoughts to live in;
When for earth too fancy-loose
And too low for Heaven!
Hush! I talk my dream aloud---
I build it bright to see,---
I build it on the moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee.

Cloud-walls of the morning's grey,
Faced with amber column,---
Crowned with crimson cupola
From a sunset solemn!
May mists, for the casements, fetch,
Pale and glimmering;
With a sunbeam hid in each,
And a smell of spring.

Build the entrance high and proud,
Darkening and then brightening,---
If a riven thunder-cloud,
Veined by the lightning.
Use one with an iris-stain,
For the door within;
Turning to a sound like rain,
As I enter in.

Build a spacious hall thereby:
Boldly, never fearing.
Use the blue place of the sky,
Which the wind is clearing;
Branched with corridors sublime,
Flecked with winding stairs---
Such as children wish to climb,
Following their own prayers.

In the mutest of the house,
I will have my chamber:
Silence at the door shall use
Evening's light of amber,
Solemnising every mood,
Softemng in degree,---
Turning sadness into good,
As I turn the key.

Be my chamber tapestried
With the showers of summer,
Close, but soundless,---glorified
When the sunbeams come here;
Wandering harpers, harping on
Waters stringed for such,---
Drawing colours, for a tune,
With a vibrant touch.

Bring a shadow green and still
From the chestnut forest,
Bring a purple from the hill,
When the heat is sorest;
Spread them out from wall to wall,
Carpet-wove around,---
Whereupon the foot shall fall
In light instead of sound.

Bring the fantasque cloudlets home
From the noontide zenith
Ranged, for sculptures, round the room,---
Named as Fancy weeneth:
Some be Junos, without eyes;
Naiads, without sources
Some be birds of paradise,---
Some, Olympian horses.

Bring the dews the birds shake off,
Waking in the hedges,---
Those too, perfumed for a proof,
From the lilies' edges:
From our England's field and moor,
Bring them calm and white in;
Whence to form a mirror pure,
For Love's self-delighting.

Bring a grey cloud from the east,
Where the lark is singing;
Something of the song at least,
Unlost in the bringing:
That shall be a morning chair,
Poet-dream may sit in,
When it leans out on the air,
Unrhymed and unwritten.

Bring the red cloud from the sun
While he sinketh, catch it.
That shall be a couch,---with one
Sidelong star to watch it,---
Fit for poet's finest Thought,
At the curfew-sounding,--- ;
Things unseen being nearer brought
Than the seen, around him.

Poet's thought,----not poet's sigh!
'Las, they come together!
Cloudy walls divide and fly,
As in April weather!
Cupola and column proud,
Structure bright to see---
Gone---except that moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee!

Let them! Wipe such visionings
From the Fancy's cartel---
Love secures some fairer things
Dowered with his immortal.
The sun may darken,---heaven be bowed---
But still, unchanged shall be,---
Here in my soul,---that moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with THEE!

† Jofer

Quaint Euphoria

Last night, before I went to bed, I stayed up for a few more hours to finish drafting a poem collection for tomorrow's Valentine event. I asked a few of my writer friends to contribute 1-2 of their best lovey-dovey poems so I can include them in my collection. Of course, credit will always be given.

Earlier today, I ran around town looking for a decent self-publishing deal. I had finished the layout and typed all the poetry up in one okay package so all I needed was to get someone to print them. Luckily, I remembered an older friend who was working at Eagle Publishing. Khalleen and I visited the place and we got our deal. Unfortunately, the output wasn't the same small book (ala ADMU Heights) I had imagined and was instead one of those larger kiddie books in size. It wasn't all bad though as it came out great, albeit not what I expected. At least I now know to draft my stuff on A5 Paper if I plan on publishing them on a small book size.

A few hours from now, Emem Zaldivar will be celebrating her birthday. She's an awesome writer and a greater friend. She was also one of those writer friends who contributed her work to my crappy compilation. She'll be 20 and I intend to be the first to greet her.

Tomorrow, REPLIKA will hold its Valentines Day Special Exhibit of sorts. That was the event where I was planning to showcase my first successful self-published poetry book. Jr Cheng, Khalleen, Xtian Abigail Seraspi and a few other members were with me earlier to fix the venue and we did good.

This summer, I plan to publish a poetry book before I move on with the next chapter of my life. 

Looks like I've done good for this day.

† Jofer