stacy benedict

As a wee lass I wrote a poem at the behest of my elementary school teacher for Valentine’s Day.  It was terrible.  At least I wasn’t the only one that sucked.  The rest of the class didn’t come close to Shakespeare either.

As an earnest college student I scribbled ardent lines of poetry in a felt covered notebook in between classes.  They were awful. I thought they were so deep at the time.  Now, I look back and cringe.

Oh, well…Maybe some day I’ll share them just for a laugh or as an April Fool’s joke or as a warning to humans about the pending literary apocalypse.

Here are some poems that don’t suck for Valentine’s Day.

Love

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806 – 1861

We cannot live, except thus mutually

We alternate, aware or unaware,

The reflex act of life: and when we bear

Our virtue onward most impulsively,

Most full of invocation, and to be

Most instantly compellant, certes, there

We live most life, whoever breathes most air

And counts his dying years by sun and sea.

But when a soul, by choice and conscience, doth

Throw out her full force on another soul,

The conscience and the concentration both make

mere life, Love. For Life in perfect whole

And aim consummated, is Love in sooth,

As nature’s magnet-heat rounds pole with pole.

 

She Walks in Beauty

By George Gordon Byron, 1788 – 1824

I.

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 mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

II.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

   Had half impaired 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.

III.

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!

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806 – 1861

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 every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

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.

 

Meeting at Night

By Robert Browning, 1812 – 1889

The gray sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low:

And the startled little waves that leap

In fiery ringlets from their sleep,

As I gain the cove with pushing prow,

And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;

Three fields to cross till a farm appears;

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch

And blue spurt of a lighted match,

And a voice less loud, through joys and fears,

Than the two hearts beating each to each!

 

Hope you liked the poems in this week’s blog post.  You can read the first chapters of my urban fantasy series The Children of Ekhidna and Typhoeus on the books page.

Please let me know what you think by liking, commenting or subscribing.

Happy Valentine’s Day!