Poems for Valentine's Day

[west]

Regardless of your opinion of Valentine's Day (and I for one view it with measured distrust--it's just a day, after all), it is commonly marked by the maudlin display of love. So let's mark the occasion in a classy manner.

Post (one of) your favorite poems relating to love. Can be sappy, sexy (within bounds of forum decency ), sarcastic, classic, you name it.
Be sure to credit the author. And I know we're all fantastic poets, but please, only works by others. This is not the "I wrote a love poem" thread.

I'll start. This is not my favorite of E.E.'s love poems, but the other one might be a little sensual for some cantr viewers. It's called "i like my body when it is with your"

This is a close second: "since feeling is first"

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Well... here's one that's rather amusing, I think... But I can't think of a favorite one at the moment... so I'll just share this one and the next..

Sonnet 130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Here's the other one that I just think is interesting... because there's a puzzle within it...

A Valentine

For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Loeda,
Shally find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies
Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
Search narrowly the lines!-- they hold a treasure
Divine-- a talisman-- an amulet
That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure--
The words-- the syllables! Do not forget
The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor!
And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,
If one could merely comprehend the plot.
Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering
Eyes' scintillating soul, there lie perdus
Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing
Of poets, by poets-- as the name is a poet's too.
It's letters, although naturally lying
Like the knight Pinto-- Mendez Ferdinando--
Still form a synonym for Truth.-- Cease trying!
You will not read the riddle though you do the best that you can do.

To get the puzzle, you read the first letter of the first line in conjunction with the second letter of the second line, then the third letter of the third line, so on and so forth to the end... and you'll get the name of who it was written for.

[tiddy ogg]

Roses are red, violets are puce,
What I'd like to do, you would class as abuse.


Roses are red, violets are violet,
You'd love me if I were an airline piolet.

I could go on for ever, but I'll spare you.

[formerly known as hf]

my vote goes with tidy...

[colonel]

I love e.e. cummings. Ahhhh west that was just for me wasn't it?
I will post some when I get home.