Love poems

Ben Jonson

To Celia

Drink to me, only, with thine eyes,
     And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
     And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise,
     Doth ask a drink divine:
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
     I would not change for thine.
I sent thee, late, a rosy wreath,
     Not so much honouring thee,
As giving it a hope, that there
     It could not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
     And sent'st back to me:
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
     Not of itself, but thee.

Citate de dragoste

• 'Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.'
  ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick
• 'I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for their religion - I have shudder'd at it. I shudder no more.
  I could be martyr'd for my religion. Love is my religion.
  And I could die for that. I could die for you.'
  ~ John Keats
• 'To live is like to love -
  all reason is against it,
  and all healthy instinct for it.'
  ~ Samuel Butler, Life and love