A POEM ON LOVE

 

          A POEM ON LOVE

There are thousands of poems on love but those which are best loved  in all ages and  every country are not too many. That is why they are called best-loved poem.

Love is needed by men and women, birds and beasts, even by flora and fauna from the first moment of existence to the last one.

The English statesman Sir William Temple (1628-1699) said: The greatest pleasure of life is love.

The Italian poet Francis Petrarch (1304-1374 regards love as the crowning grace of soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart of life, and is prophetic of eternal good.

In his poem on “Love” Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834) says:

All thoughts, all passions, all delights,

Whatever stirs this mortal  frame,

All are but ministers of Love,

And feed his sacred flame.                 

         

The poem that follows is titled YOU AND I and is  written by the English churchman, theologian, scholar and poet Henry Alford (1810-1871). Like any other true and eternal lover, he concludes his poem with the words “We ought to be together, you and I.

 

          The full Text of the poem reads as follows:

 

My hand is lonely for your clasping, dear;
My ear is tired waiting for your call.
I want your strength to help, your laugh to cheer;
Heart, soul and senses need you, one and all.
I droop without your full, frank sympathy;
We ought to be together - you and I;
We want each other so, to comprehend
The dream, the hope, things planned, or seen, or wrought.
Companion, comforter and guide and friend,
As much as love asks love, does thought ask thought.
Life is so short, so fast the lone hours fly,
We ought to be together, you and I.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

7^th April 2025