Love Poetry Out Loud by Robert Alden Rubin Read Free Book Online

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 it back to me,
    Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
    Not of itself, but thee.
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    ROSY SCENARIOS
    When you follow the florist’s advice and “say it with roses,” you’re not only sending flowers, you’re sending a message. Roses have traditionally been associated with blood and soul, and both carnal and spiritual love
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    Flirting
    There’s a long poetic tradition in which the poet, constrained by good manners, politics, and jealous rivals or parents, can’t come out and say what he means openly. Look for secret messages
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    Jove =
Jupiter in Roman mythology
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    Wreath =
A classical symbol of victory and celebration
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    Sent’st it back =
Refused it
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    Global Warming?
    Robert Burns had another sort of warmth in mind in the late 1700s, when he published this. Ornate and self-consciously witty verse was all the fashion, and his simple Scottish folk poems were considered unconventional. The Romantic poets of the next century admired them, though, and the poems have lasted, while many of the eighteenth century’s more sophisticated poets are largely forgotten
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    Rose =
For Burns, the rose that represents his love may carry classical associations, but mainly it’s a simple flower
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    Gang =
Go
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A R ED , R ED R OSE
    Robert Burns
    O my luve’s like a red, red rose,
    That’s newly sprung in June;
    O my luve’s like the melodie
    That’s sweetly played in tune.
    As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
    So deep in luve am I;
    And I will luve thee still, my dear,
    Till a’ the seas gang dry.
    Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
    And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
    And I will luve thee still, my dear,
    While the sands o’ life shall run.
    And fare thee weel, my only luve!
    And fare thee weel a while!
    And I will come again, my luve,
    Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!
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    CLASSICAL BEAUTIES
    Here are two poets steeped in the classics, discoursing on beauty. Thomas Carew, in the tradition of John Donne and his circle, uses classical images and ideas to represent the attractions of his beloved. Randall Jarrell starts to do the same thing, then finds himself getting a little carried away
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    Cavalier Attitude
    The light, bantering attitude of this poem, and its deep grounding in classical mythology and literature, is typical of the “Cavalier poets” — the gentlemen-soldiers of the court of King Charles I. Carew is thought to have died before the outbreak of the English Civil War
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    Orient =
East, where the sun rises
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    Causes =
The beloved’s beauty gives rise to flowers
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    Atoms =
The particles of dust that twinkle in sunbeams
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    Dividing throat =
When the beloved sings or speaks
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    Sphere =
In the Ptolemaic conception of the universe, a sphere of fixed stars lay beyond the sun and planets
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    Phoenix =
The mythical fire-bird associated with the sun
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A SK M E N O M ORE
    Thomas Carew
    A sk me no more where Jove bestows,
    When June is past, the fading rose;
    For in your beauty’s orient deep
    These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.
    Ask me no more whither do stray
    The golden atoms of the day,
    For, in pure love, heaven did prepare
    Those powders to enrich your hair.
    Ask me no more whither doth haste
    The nightingale when May is past;
    For in your sweet dividing throat
    She winters, and keeps warm her note.
    Ask me no more where those stars light
    That downwards fall in dead of night,
    For in your eyes they sit, and there
    Fixèd become as in their sphere.
    Ask me no more if east or west
    The phoenix builds her spicy nest;
    For unto you at last she flies,
    And in your fragrant bosom