TO A KISS SOFT child of love, thou balmy bliss, Why thou so suddenly art gone, Yet go! For wherefore should I sigh? A thousand full as sweet as thee. SONG John Wolcot [1738-1819] OFTEN I have heard it said When she kissed me once in play, In the palace of the Sun. Will they be as bright again? Not if kissed by other men. Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864] THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE 'Α βάρβιτος δὲ χορδαῖς Ερωτα μοῦνον ἠχει-ANACREON AWAY with your fictions of flimsy romance, Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow, If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse, Or the Nine be disposed from your service to rove, Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the muse, And try the effect of the first kiss of love. I hate you, ye cold compositions of art! 687 Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove, Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes, What are visions like these to the first kiss of love? Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth, From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove; Some portion of Paradise still is on earth, And Eden revives in the first kiss of love. When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past- George Gordon Byron [1788–1824] "JENNY KISSED ME" JENNY kissed me when we met, Sweets into your list, put that in! Say I'm weary, say I'm sad, Say that health and wealth have missed me, Say I'm growing old, but add, Jenny kissed me. Leigh Hunt [1784-1859] "I FEAR THY KISSES, GENTLE MAIDEN” I FEAR thy kisses, gentle maiden; Thou needest not fear mine; My spirit is too deeply laden Ever to burthen thine. I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion; Innocent is the heart's devotion With which I worship thine. Percy Bysshe Shelley [1792-1822] LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY THE fountains mingle with the river, Nothing in the world is single; See the mountains kiss high heaven, Percy Bysshe Shelley [1792-1822] SONG From "In a Gondola " THE moth's kiss, first! Kiss me as if you made believe You were not sure, this eve, The First Kiss How my face, your flower, had pursed You brush it, till I grow aware Who wants me, and wide ope I burst. 689 Robert Browning (1812-1889] SUMMUM BONUM ALL the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee: All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem: In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea: Breath and bloom, shade and shine,-wonder, wealth, and-how far above them- Truth, that's brighter than gem, Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe-all were for me Robert Browning [1812-1889] THE FIRST KISS If only in dreams may man be fully blest, Her bosom beats,-I see the blue eyes beam:- Yon thicket's breath--can that be eglantine? Those birds-can they be morning's choristers? Can this be earth? Can these be banks of furze? Like burning bushes fired of God they shine! I seem to know them, though this body of mine Passed into spirit at the touch of hers! Theodore Watts-Dunton [1836–1914] TO MY LOVE KISS me softly and speak to me low; Kiss me softly and speak to me low. Kiss me softly and speak to me low; Kiss me softly and speak to me low. Kiss me softly and speak to me low; Trust me, darling, the time is near Kiss me softly and speak to me low. John Godfrey Saxe [1816-1887] TO LESBIA GIVE me kisses! Do not stay, Every moment-and again! Give me kisses! Do not stop, |