Let me hold your Heart like
A flower—lest it Bloom & Collapse.²
Love, thou art High: I cannot climb thee—
But, were it Two, who knows but We …³
Lover’s don’t meet somewhere along the way:
They’ve been in one another’s Souls all along—⁴
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: I love thee
To the Depth, Breadth & Height my soul can reach!
I Love thee to the level of everyday’s most quiet need.⁵
Love is the only way to Grasp another human
In the Innermost Core of the personality.⁶
We share the inward Fragrance
Of each other’s heart.⁷
The Supreme sight on this black
Earth: I say it is the one you Love!⁸
I Love her against reason, against promise,
Against peace, against hope, against happiness—
Against all discouragement that can be.⁹
Cupid is no longer an archer, his glory is
Ours: for we are the only Love-Gods.¹⁰
¹ E.E. Cummings, I Carry Your Heart With Me
² Anne Sexton, Rapunzel
³ Emily Dickinson, Love Thou Art High
⁴ Rumi tr. unknown, In One Another’s Souls
⁵ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese
⁶ Viktor E. Frankl tr. Ilse Lasch, Man’s Search for Meaning
⁷ John Keats, Isabella
⁸ Sappho tr. Willis Barnstone, Supreme Sight on the Black Earth
⁹ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
¹⁰ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing