LOVE.
What thing is love?—for (well I wot) love is a thing
It is a prick, it is a sting,
It is a pretty, pretty thing;
It is a fire, it is a coal,
Whose flame creeps in at every hole!
The Hunting of Cupid. G. PEELE.
O, love, love, love!
Love is like a dizziness;
It winna let a poor body
Gang about his biziness!
Love is Like a Dizziness. J. HOGG.
With a smile that glowed
Celestial rosy red; love's proper hue.
Paradise Lost, Bk. VIII. MILTON.
Love, like death,
Levels all ranks, and lays the shepherd's crook
Beside the sceptre.
Lady of Lyons. E. BULWER-LYTTON.
Didst thou but know the inly touch of love,
Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow,
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 7. SHAKESPEARE.
There's a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told,
When two, that are linked in one heavenly tie.
With heart never changing, and brow never cold.
Love on through all ills, and love on till they die!
One hour of a passion so sacred is worth
Whole ages of heartless and wandering bliss;
And O, if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this.
Lalla Rookh: Light of the Harem. T. MOORE.
Love is the tyrant of the heart; it darkens
Reason, confounds discretion; deaf to counsel
It runs a headlong course to desperate madness.
The Lover's Melancholy, Act iii. Sc. 3. J. FORD.
Ask not of me. Love, what is love?
Ask what is good of God above;
Ask of the great sun what is light;
Ask what is darkness of the night;
Ask sin of what may be forgiven;
Ask what is happiness of heaven;
Ask what is folly of the crowd;
Ask what is fashion of the shroud;
Ask what is sweetness of thy kiss;
Ask of thyself what beauty is.
Festus, Sc. Party and Entertainment. P.J. BAILEY.
All love is sweet,
Given or returned. Common as light is love,
And its familiar voice wearies not ever.
Prometheus Unbound, Act ii. Sc. 5. P.B. SHELLEY.