WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face among a crowd of stars.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Now, Jim, I can’t believe you started this thread and weren’t angling for that! I once saw the line “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” in the preface to a book about Mozart, and, since then, I’ve thought that I should strive to deserve the line on my gravestone. Unfortunately, my wife thinks I’m far too miserable to have any chance of earning it. I suppose it’ll have to be the Spike Milligan classic instead: “I told you I was ill…”
Shakespeare as a Love poet? Hmmmmm, no. IMO, the last two lines of sonnet eighteen give the lie to the rest. It was just self-publicising. Would any woman (or man) generate tender feelings for the poet if that verse was addressed to them? I think not. Unless they were illiterate.
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
Hmm. I’ve heard this one before. And that it it was about his gay lover. I personally don’t see anything too conceited or self-aggrandising in those two lines. I love you so much that as long as there are people on the planet this poem I’ve written for you will keep your flame alive. Thy eternal summer shall not fade. It’s the epitome of young love being forever, nicely captured I think. Getting all carried away and that. I was that poet once…
Romance (Ambivalent Romance: one straight, one satire. )
Lady, you’ve never looked lovelier,
Your skin seems to shimmer and glow;
Your lips when they part make an ache in my heart
And I feel like I’m falling through feathers and snow
And there’s only one question I’m anxious to know…
Will you give me your hand
Will you give me your heart
Will you take my caress
Will you say you’ll be mine
Will you give me a sign
Will you only say yes.
Do you fancy a shag* then?
I feel lucky tonight, I’m so close I can taste it!
Do you fancy a shag, then?
But I’ve only one breath mint and I don’t want to waste it:
So do you fancy a shag?
Lady, your essence is beauty,
Your profile so sweet and so fine;
Your eyes hold my gaze and I’m lost in a daze,
And the feeling sublime when your hand touches mine
Every word that you speak sends a chill down my spine…
Will you give me your hand
Will you give me your heart
Will you take my caress
Will you say you’ll be mine
Will you give me a sign
Will you only say yes.
Do you fancy a shag then?
This is how something special begins:
Do you fancy a shag then?
I know where there’s a quiet spot down by the bins.
So do you fancy a shag?
Lady, the moment is fleeting,
As we stand, the dawn heralds the day,
The stars in the sky seem to shimmer and fly
And we can’t help but stay while time’s slipping away
So I’m waiting on tiptoe to hear what you say…
Will you give me your hand
Will you give me your heart
Will you take my caress
Will you say you’ll be mine
Will you give me a sign
Will you only say yes.
Do you fancy a shag then?
In embrace we will find paradise
Do you fancy a shag then?
Okay? For you’ve only been sick once or twice:
So do you fancy a shag?
Non-UK English-speakers may be encouraged to know that this does not refer to the bird resembling a cormorant, not the briefly popular american dance, but is a colloquial reference to a quick leg-over situation.
This song was originally written as the satirical version, but on request, was done “straight”.
Once, when I was young and true,
Someone left me sad-
Broke my brittle heart in two;
And that is very bad.
Love is for unlucky folk,
Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
And that, I think, is worse.
Theory
Into love and out again,
Thus I went and thus I go.
Spare your voice, and hold your pen:
Well and bitterly I know
All the songs were ever sung,
All the words were ever said;
Could it be, when I was young,
Someone dropped me on my head?
–Dorothy Parker
It was over awkward coffee at a neutral table where the scones live,
For hire in their weight upon crumbed bone-pale plates,
We met and spoke of mainly neutral matters
In our most interested not-too-neutral voices
Tapping for veins of ore, tapping, tapping.
Tapping.
O be my Angelina anyway, and I will be your Brad.
