Complete Book of Wedding Vows (94 page)

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Authors: Diane Warner

Tags: #Family & Relationships, #Marriage, #test

BOOK: Complete Book of Wedding Vows
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Page 180
John Keats' writings offer beautiful phrasings for reaffirmation vows, including these:
"July 1, 1819
...for myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair. I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer daysthree such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain..."
John Keats
"March 1820
...my dear Girl I love you ever and ever and without reserve. The more I have known you the more have I lov'd. In every wayeven my jealousies have been agonies of Love, in the hottest fit I ever had I would have died for you. I have vex'd you too much. But for Love! Can I help it? You are always new. The last of your kisses was ever the sweetest; the last smile the brightest; the last movement the gracefullest...no ill prospect has been able to turn your thoughts a moment from me...even if you did not love me I could not help an entire devotion to you: how much more deeply then must I feel for you knowing you love me..."
John Keats
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
 
Page 181
Our times are in his hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be
afraid!"...
Robert Browning, from "Rabbi Ben Ezra"
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams...
John Keats
Sonnet XIV:
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
'I love her for her smileher lookher way
Of speaking gently,for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,
A creature might forget to weep, who bore

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