Love Poetry Out Loud (17 page)

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

I
s it to me, this sad-lamenting strain?

Are heaven's choicest gifts bestow'd in vain?

A plenteous fortune, and a beauteous bride,

Your love rewarded, and content your pride!

Yet leaving her — 'tis me that you pursue,

Without one single charm, but being new.

How vile is man! How I detest the ways

Of artful falsehood, and designing praise!

Tasteless, an easy happiness you slight,

Ruin your joy, and mischief your delight.

Why should poor pug (the mimic of your kind)

Wear a rough chain, and be to box confin'd?

Some cup perhaps he breaks, or tears a fan,

While moves unpunish'd the destroyer, man.

Not bound by vows, and unrestrain'd by shame,

In sport you break the heart, and rend the fame.

Not that your art can be successful here,

Th' already plunder'd need no robber fear,

Nor sighs, nor charms, nor flattery can move,

Too well secur'd against a second love.

Once, and but once, that devil charm'd my mind,

To reason deaf, to observation blind,

I idly hop'd (what cannot love persuade?)

My fondness equall'd, and my truth repaid,

Slow to distrust, and willing to believe,

Long hush'd my doubts, and would my self deceive;

But oh too soon — this tale would ever last,

Sleep, sleep my wrongs, and let me think 'em past.

For you who mourn with counterfeited grief

And ask so boldly like a begging thief;

May soon some other nymph inflict the pain

You know so well, with cruel art to feign,

Tho' long you've sported with Don Cupid's dart,

You may see eyes, and you may feel a heart.

So the brisk wits who stop the evening coach

Laugh at the fear that follows their approach,

With idle mirth, and haughty scorn despise

The passenger's pale cheek, and staring eyes;

But seiz'd by Justice, find a fright no jest

And all the terror doubled in their breast.

 

It's an Old Rap, Dawg

Have some fun and try reading this eighteenth-century poem as if it were a hip-hop lyric. In many ways, the stylized “heroic couplets” of the era resemble today's rap songs. Montagu was best known as a letter-writer, but she also wrote poetry with a sharp, satirical edge to it
.

Brisk wits =
Jovial highway robbers
.

Justice =
After they've been arrested
.

Dorothy Parker

I
do not like my state of mind;

I'm bitter, querulous, unkind.

I hate my legs, I hate my hands,

I do not yearn for lovelier lands.

I dread the dawn's recurrent light;

I hate to go to bed at night.

I snoot at simple, earnest folk.

I cannot take the gentlest joke.

I find no peace in paint or type.

My world is but a lot of tripe.

I'm disillusioned, empty-breasted.

For what I think, I'd be arrested.

I am not sick, I am not well.

My quondam dreams are shot to hell.

My soul is crushed, my spirit sore;

I do not like me any more.

I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.

I ponder on the narrow house.

I shudder at the thought of men. …

I'm due to fall in love again.

 

Mirror, Mirror

Ah, love! It has been quite a journey. And, as we end our trip through this amorous landscape of love poetry, perhaps we should let Dorothy Parker, denizen of the urban jungle, have the last word, as she diagnoses herself
.

Quondam =
Former
.

48 Hours After You Left
146

Adam's Curse
162

“After great pain, a formal feeling comes”
165

Aged Lover Discourses in the Flat Style, The
129

Answer to a Love Letter in Verse, An
187

Ask Me No More
69

Bearded Oaks
143

Birthday, A
82

Brown Penny
60

Changed Man, The
96

“Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy”
126

Coral
124

December at Yase
180

Defiance, The
101

Down, Wanton, Down!
117

Fire and Ice
164

For an Amorous Lady
4

Freedom
182

Girl in a Library, A
71

Good Morning, Love!
183

Good Morrow, The
22

Good Night
149

Green
122

Greeting, The
26

Her Lips Are Copper Wire
125

Homage to Mistress Bradstreet, from
65

How Do I Love Thee?
62

“I, being born a woman”
49

“I hear an army charging upon the land”
107

I Look into My Glass
186

I So Liked Spring
185

I Will Not Give Thee All My Heart
105

I Will Not Let Thee Go
138

“If I profane with my unworthiest hand” (from
Romeo and Juliet
)
91

“Joy of my life, full oft for loving you”
95

Juke Box Love Song
63

Letter Home
134

Light, The
28

Lingam and the Yoni, The
7

Litany
2

Lonely Hearts
47

Lost Mistress, The
169

Love Poem
86

Love Portions
45

Love Song
52

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The
154

Love Song: I and Thou
50

Love under the Republicans (or Democrats)
11

Love: Two Vignettes
12

Love's Philosophy
36

Lullaby
120

Meeting and Passing
25

Meeting, The
140

Neutral Tones
106

Never Pain to Tell Thy Love
152

“Not marble nor the gilded monuments”
77

“Not Marble nor the Gilded Monuments”
78

Nothing but No and I
19

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
92

Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd, The
54

“O Mistress Mine” (from
Twelfth Night)
18

Poem
37

Poem for Sigmund
119

Portrait of a Lady
56

Pucker
40

Red, Red Rose, A
68

Resignation
14

Rival, The
167

River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter, The
132

She's All My Fancy Painted Him
5

“Sigh No More, Ladies” (from
Much Ado About Nothing)
175

Silentium Amoris
108

“Since the majority of me”
166

“Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part”
174

Sleeping with You
171

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
84

Song of Songs, The (7:1–8:3)
88

Song: To Celia
67

Sources of the Delaware
176

Still Looking Out for Number One
142

Surprised by Joy
35

Symptom Recital
189

Taking Off My Clothes
111

“That time of year thou mayst in me behold”
148

“The Twenty-ninth Bather”
32

Then Came Flowers
100

Thine Eyes Still Shined
34

Thou Art My Lute
83

To an Usherette
10

To My Dear and Loving Husband
64

Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, A
102

Variations on the Word Love
109

Voice, The
137

Wet
115

When We Two Parted
93

When You Are Old
104

Where Be Ye Going, You Devon Maid?
58

“Wild Nights—Wild Nights!”
24

Wrestling
114

You Say I Love Not
153

After great pain, a formal feeling comes
165

Ah, come with me
10

All's over, then: does truth sound bitter
169

Although the angels of numbers and letters
86

An object among dreams, you sit here with your shoes off
71

As I went down the hill along the wall
25

As often-times the too resplendent sun
108

As virtuous men pass mildly away
102

Ask me no more where Jove bestows
69

By Heaven 'tis false, I am not vain
101

Can someone make my simple wish come true?
47

Come live with me and be my love
11

Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy
126

Desire urges us on deeper
115

Down, wanton, down! Have you no shame
117

Drink to me only with thine eyes
67

Hello. It is like an echo
26

How beautiful are your sandalled feet, O prince's daughter!
88

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
62

How instant joy, how clang
12

I could take the Harlem night
63

I do not like my state of mind
189

I hear an army charging upon the land
107

I look into my glass
186

I love you
14

I love you he said but saying it took twenty years
176

I never knew a luh, luh-luh, a love like this
28

I should have known if you gave me flowers
100

I so liked Spring last year
185

I take off my shirt, I show you
111

I whispered, “I am too young”
60

I will not give thee all my heart
105

I will not let thee go
138

I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I
22

I, being born a woman and distressed
49

If all the world and love were young
54

If ever two were one, then surely we
64

If I profane with my unworthiest hand
91

If the moon smiled, she would resemble you
167

If you were to hear me imitating Pavarotti
96

Is it to me, this sad-lamenting strain?
187

It's a funny thing
119

Joy of my life, full oft for loving you
95

Last night during a thunderstorm
134

Lay your sleeping head, my love
120

Let us go then, you and I
154

Love, I shall perfect for you the child
37

My heart is like a singing bird
82

My love is deep and penetrating. Subterranean
40

Never pain to tell thy Love
152

Not marble nor the gilded monuments
77

Nothing but no and I, and I and no
19

Nothing is plumb, level, or square
50

Now, heaven be thanked, I am out of love again!
182

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white
92

Now that you've gone away for five days
142

O my luve's like a red, red rose
68

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
18

One creature, not the mollusk
171

Our oneness is the wrestlers', fierce and close
114

Rise at 7:15
183

She's all my fancy painted him
5

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more
175

Since the majority of me
166

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part
174

Sleep softly my old love
149

Some say the world will end in fire
164

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
84

Suppose we two were cast away
52

Surprised by joy — impatient as the wind
35

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
148

The fountains mingle with the river
36

The Governor your husband lived so long
65

The Lingam and the Yoni
7

The oaks, how subtle and marine
143