Famous Love Poetry cannot be complete without mention of William Wordsworth.
William Wordsworth's famous love poetry, supported by some anonymous verse which are simply irresistible, draw the final curtain on my page on famous love poetry.
Wordsworth is the last English romantic poet on offer. If he was considered dull by Shelley, which contempt was also evident in Byron, Wordsworth (1770-1850), at least outlived his fellow romantics and even became an establishment icon when he was conferred the poet laurette in 1843.
William Wordsworth developed a deep appreciation of nature, nurtured by his love of the signs and scenes of the Lake Country in which he spent most of his adult life.
He virtually made a religion of nature and to him this was the chief impulse and theme of his verse. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey were referred to as the Lake Poets because they all lived there during their day.Whilst Coleridge and Wordsworth impacted on themselves earlier in their careers, Southey did not actually meet Wordsworth till much later.
Much of the disdain Wordsworth earned from the second generation of Romantic poets, like Byron and Shelley was due to the fact that like them, he started out an anarchist and revolutionary, but a steady disillusionment with first, the reign of terror and then the despotic ascendancy of Napoleon in France,( where much of his early inspiration came from) all conspired to convert him full circle, to conservatism. A far cry from his early influences like Thomas Paine and William Godwin.
His first major work was Lyrical Ballads in 1798 which was co-authored by Coleridge, whose "Ancient Mariner" was featured therein. Lyrical Ballads actually ushered in the age of the Romantics as a marked departure from the previous grandiloquent themes of ancient heroes which was the mainstay of poetry hitherto:
"Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge;
It is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science"
Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings arising from emotion recollected un tranquility."
Here are two examples of Wordsworth's famous love poetry:
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
...Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
...And very few to love:
A violet by a mossy stone
...Half hidden from the eye!
---Fair as a star, when only one
...Is shining in the sky.
She lived unknown, and few could know
...When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!
The World Is Too Much With Us;
Late and Soon
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
This is a beautifully crafted poem, capturing the ethos of Wordsworth's famous love poetry, particularly his oft expressed involvement with nature and her products.
William Wordsworth, in his famous love poetry, was a profound and earnest thinker. He exhibited deep seriousness tempered by a rare tenderness and love of simplicity:
She Was a Phantom of Delight
She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful dawn;
A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.
Surprised by Joy
Surprised by joy - impatient as the wind
I turned to share the transport -
O! with whom
But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?
Love, faithful love, recalled thee thee to my mind -
But how could I forget thee? Through what power,
Even for the least division of an hour,
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind
To my most grievous loss! -
That thought's return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,
Save one, one only, when I stood forlon,
Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;
That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.
By the time Wordsworth died in 1850, he was widely considered the greatest poet in the world and a national institution. His simple tombstone in the churchyard of St Oswald's Church in Grasmere is today one of the most visited literary shrines in the world. He wrote some 70,000 lines of verse, about 40,000 more than any other poet!
Two beautiful anonymous love poems brings us to the close of this most fascinating journey into the world of famous love poetry. I hope once more to have given hours of deep pleasure to the host of love poetry lovers out there!
How Great Delight
How great delight from those sweet lips I taste
Whether I hear them speak, or feel them kiss!
Only this want I have, that being graced
With one of them, the other straight I miss.
Love, since thou canst do wonders, heap my blisses
And grant her kissing words, or speaking kisses.
Once and No More
'Once and no more,' so said my love
...When in mine arms enchained.
She unto mine her lips did move,
...And so my heart had gained.
This done, she said, 'Away I must
...For fear of being missed.
Your heart's made over but in trust.'
...And so again she kissed.
So shall it always be in the world of snatched kisses and stolen moments captured so vividly by famous love poetry!
Famous Love Poetry Examples 1
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