Poetry (and prose!) for Thought

Coming up with personalized wedding vows is probably one of the most nerve racking parts of the whole event for me... I DESPISE public speaking. Plus, I want what I say to sound good, right? Therein lies the problem: I am completely polar oppositely far far away from being romantic. I like romantic gestures towards me, but I have a really hard time being, for lack of better words, mushy gushy. Therefore, I need some inspiration, and what better a place to get it from than classical poetry. Here are a few of my favorite poems, don't be surprised if my vows are bits and pieces of all them put together!

From Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte

...He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same... He's always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.

"If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love."

-Michel de Montaigne

"The true beloveds of this world are in their lovers' eyes lilacs opening, ship lights, school bells, a landscape, remembered conversations, friends, a child's Sunday, lost voices, one's favorite suit, autumn and all seasons."

-Truman Capote

A Red, Red Rose

Robert Burns

O, my love is like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

O my love is like the melody,

That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I,

And I will love thee still, my dear, 

Til a' the seas gang dry.

Til a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun!

And I will love thee still, my dear,

When the sands o'life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only love,

And fare thee well awhile!

And I will come again, my love,

Though it were ten thousand mile!

"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

-Robert Heinlein

Did I Ever Tell You

Richard Exley

Did I ever tell you

that I love you

early in the morning

with your toothpaste kisses

and your sleepy eyes?

With your headaches and 

grumpiness

that only goes away

if I hold your hand

and whisper the soft things

that you like to hear?

Did I ever tell you

that I love you

at mid-afternoon

during coffee-break time,

when clocks and

crowded cafeterias

make smiles and warm hands

love's best language?

Did I ever tell you

that I love the way

you smell after a bath,

that I love the way you feel in bed beside me,

that I love the way

you look after I've loved you?

Did I ever tell you that I love you?

I do,

I do,

I do.

"Love does not consist of gazing at each other, 

but looking outward in the same direction."

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take... It is indeed a fearful gamble... 

Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature.

To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take... If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation... It takes a lifetime to learn another person... When love is not possession , but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected.

I'd be crazy to propose to her, but when I see that profile of hers I feel the only thing worth doing in the world is to grab her and start shouting for clergymen and bridesmaids to come running.

-P.G. Wodehouse

"Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be."

-Robert Browning