• How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
    I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
    My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
    For the ends...

  • Love is like the wild rose-briar,
    Friendship like the holly-tree -
    The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms'
    But which will bloom most constantly?

    The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring,
    It's summer blossoms scent the air.
    Yet wait till winter comes again
    And who will call the wild-briar fair?

    Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now
    And deck...

  • I gave myself to him,
    And took himself for pay.
    The solemn contract of a life
    Was ratified this way

    The value might disappoint,
    Myself a poorer prove
    Than this my purchaser suspect,
    The daily own of Love

    Depreciates the sight;
    But, 'til the merchant buy,
    Still fabled, in the isles of spice
    The subtle cargoes lie.

    At least, 'tis...

  • Accept, dear girl, this little token,
       And if between the lines you seek,
    You'll find the love I've often spoken-
       The love my dying lips shall speak.

    Our little ones are making merry
       O'er am'rous ditties rhymed in jest,
    But in these words (though awkward-very)
       The genuine article's expressed.

    You are as fair and sweet and tender,
      ...

  • The night has a thousand eyes,
    And the day but one;
    Yet the light of the bright world dies
    With the dying sun.

    The mind has a thousand eyes,
    And the heart but one;
    Yet the light of a whole life dies
    When love is done.

  • 1

    She walks in beauty, like the night
    Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
    And all that's best of dark and bright
    Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
    Thus mellow'd to that tender light
    Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
    2

    One shade the more, one ray the less,
    Had half impair'd the nameless grace
    ...
  • When we two parted
    In silence and tears,
    Half broken-hearted,
    To sever for years,
    Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
    Colder thy kiss;
    Truly that hour foretold
    Sorrow to this.

    The dew of the morning
    Sank chill on my brow
    It felt like the warning
    Of what I feel now.
    Thy vows are all broken,
    And light is thy fame:
    I hear thy name...

  • She is not fair to outward view
    As many maidens be,
    Her loveliness I never knew
    Until she smiled on me;
    O, then I saw her eye was bright,
    A well of love, a spring of light!

    But now her looks are coy and cold,
    To mine they ne'er reply,
    And yet I cease not to behold
    The love-light in her eye:
    Her very frowns are fairer far
    Than smiles of...

  • That so much change should come when thou dost go,
    Is mystery that I cannot ravel quite.
    The very house seems dark as when the light
    Of lamps goes out. Each wonted thing doth grow
    So altered, that I wander to and fro
    Bewildered by the most familiar sight,
    And feel like one who rouses in the night
    From dream of ecstasy, and cannot know
    At first if he be...

  • Jenny kissed me when we met,
    Jumping from the chair she sat in.
    Time, you thief, who love to get
    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!