2Wedding Reading #9: How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Arguably one of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s most famous poems, “How Do I Love Thee” was written for her husband, Robert Browning. This poem is featured in “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” Browning’s collection of love sonnets. It is one of the most popular wedding poems. 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 of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Wedding Reading #10: Sudden Light, by Dante Rosetti I have been here before, But when or how I cannot tell: I know the grass beyond the door, The sweet keen smell, The sighing sound, the lights around the shore. You have been mine before, How long ago I may not know: But just when at that swallow's soar Your neck turned so, Some veil did fall---I knew it all of yore. Has this been thus before? And shall not thus time's eddying flight Still with our lives our love restore In death's despite, And day and night yield one delight once more? Wedding Reading #11: To My Dear and Loving Husband, by Anne Bradstreet If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee. If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that Rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence. Thy love is such I can no way repay. The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. Then while we live, in love let's so persevere That when we live no more, we may live ever. |
Wedding Reading #12: She Walks In Beauty, by Lord Byron
Lord Byron is said to have written this poem after meeting his cousin Lady Anne Wilmot Horton in black mourning clothes, which, when combined with her pale skin and black hair reminded him of stars and the night. 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. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! Wedding Reading #13: A White Rose, by JB O’Reilly The red rose whispers of passion, And the white rose breathes of love; O, the red rose is a falcon, And the white rose is a dove. But I send you a cream-white rosebud With a flush on its petal tips; For the love that is purest and sweetest Has a kiss of desire on the lips Wedding Reading #14: To Chloe, by William Cartwright Who for his sake wished herself younger There are two births; the one when light First strikes the new awaken'd sense; The other when two souls unite, And we must count our life from thence: When you loved me and I loved you Then both of us were born anew. Love then to us new souls did give And in those souls did plant new powers; Since when another life we live, The breath we breathe is his, not ours: Love makes those young whom age doth chill, And whom he finds young keeps young still. |