KISS.
What is a kiss? Alacke! at worst,
A single Dropp to quenche a Thirst,
Tho' oft it prooves, in happie Hour,
The first swete Dropp of our long Showre.
In the Old Time. C.G. LELAND.
I was betrothed that day;
I wore a troth kiss on my lips I could not give away.
The Lay of the Brown Rosary, Pt. II. E.B. BROWNING.
The kiss you take is paid by that you give:
The joy is mutual, and I'm still in debt.
Heroic Love, Act v. Sc. 1.
LORD LANDSDOWNE.
Give me a kisse, and to that kisse a score;
Then to that twenty adde a hundred more;
A thousand to that hundred; so kisse on,
To make that thousand up a million;
Treble that million, and when that is done,
Let's kisse afresh, as when we first begun.
Hesperides to Anthea. R. HERRICK.
Blush, happy maiden, when you feel
The lips which press love's glowing seal;
But as the slow years darklier roll,
Grown wiser, the experienced soul
Will own as dearer far than they
The lips which kiss the tears away.
Kisses. E. AKERS.
Teach not thy lips such scorn: for they were made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt,
Richard III., Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
My lips till then had only known
The kiss of mother and of sister,
But somehow, full upon her own
Sweet, rosy, darling mouth,—I kissed her.
The Door-Step. E.C. STEDMAN.
As in the soft and sweet eclipse.
When soul meets soul on lover's lips.
Prometheus Unbound, Act iv. P.B. SHELLEY.
O Love! O fire! once he drew
With one long kiss my whole soul through
My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
Fatima. A. TENNYSON.
A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth and love.
Don Juan, Canto II. LORD BYRON.
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.—
Her lips suck forth my soul; see, where it flies!—
Faustus. C. MARLOWE.
I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse
The tyrant's wish, "that mankind only had
One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce;"
My wish is quite as wide, but not so bad,
And much more tender on the whole than fierce;
It being (not now, but only while a lad)
That womankind had but one rosy mouth,
To kiss them all at once, from North to South.
Don Juan, Canto VI. LORD BYRON.
Or ere I could
Give him that parting kiss, which I had set
Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father
And like the tyrannous breathing of the north
Shakes all our buds from growing.
Cymbeline, Act i. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Eyes, look your last:
Arms, take your last embrace; and lips,
O! you,
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death.
Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.