Love poems

Sweet Disorder...

A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness: A lawn about the shoulders thrown Into a fine distraction-- An erring lace, which here and there Enthrals the crimson stomacher-- A cuff neglectful, and thereby Ribbands to flow confusedly-- A winning wave, deserving note, In the tempestuous petticoat-- A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility-- Do more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part. When the Lamp Is Shattered... When the lamp is shattered The light in the dust lies dead When the cloud is scattered The rainbow's glory is shed. When the lute is broken, Sweet tones are remembered not. When the lips have spoken, Loved accents are soon forgot. As music and splendour Survive not the lamp and the lute. The heart's echoes render No song when the spirit is mute-- No song but sad dirges, Like the wind through a ruined cell, Or the mournful surges That ring the dead seaman's knell. When hearts have once mingled Love first leaves the well-built nest. The weak one is singled To endure what it once possessed. Oh Love! who bewailest The frailty of all things here, Why choose you the frailest For your cradle, your home, and your bier? Its passions will rock thee As the storms rock the ravens on high. Bright reason will mock thee, Like the sun from a wintry sky. From thy nest every rafter Will rot, and thine eagle home Leave thee naked to laughter, When leaves fall and cold winds come. Who Ever Loved That Loved Not at First Sight?... It lies not in our power to love or hate, For will in us is overruled by fate. When two are stripped, long ere the course begin, We wish that one should love, the other win; And one especially do we affect Of two gold ingots, like in each respect: The reason no man knows; let it suffice What we behold is censured by our eyes. Where both deliberate, the love is slight: Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight? The Night Has a Thousand Eyes...