IF ONLY YOU KNEW
Author: Unknown

If only you knew,
how my heart overflows with love for you.
If only you could see
the way you fill my hopes and dreams.
You're the owner of my heart,
the ruler supreme.
Even in the dark of night,
I've only to think about you
to feel your loving light
and from this world I drift
feeling as if
I'll never touch the ground again...
If only you knew.

If only you could guess
how I hear your voice when others speak;
for you hold the key to my happiness,
and it's always you my soul seeks.
If only you could feel,
how your very presence
has the power to heal,
all the wounds inside me.
You've made me abandon
the pain of yesterday,
and you've shown me
that the past can no longer
stand in the way
of what I hope to achieve...
If only you knew.

If only you could realize
the way you've shown me
that it's better to give
than to take,
and whatever I do,
I do for your sake.
I'm willing to give you my all
and expect nothing in return.
But, oh how I yearn
for you...
if only you knew.

FIRST LOVE
Author: John Clare

I ne'er was struck before that hour
With love so sudden and so sweet,
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower
And stole my heart away complete.

My face turned pale as deadly pale,
My legs refused to walk away,
And when she looked, what could I ail?
My life and all seemed turned to clay.

And then my blood rushed up to my face
And took my eyesight quite away,
The trees and bushes round the place
Seemed midnight at noonday.
I could not see a single thing,
Words from my eyes did start -
They spoke as chords do from the string,
And blood burnt round my heart.

Are flowers the winter's choice?
Is love's bed always snow?
She seemed to hear my silent voice,
Not love's appeals to know.
I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before.
My heart has left its dwelling - place
And can return no more.

MY FRIEND
Author: Emily Dickinson

My friend must be a bird
Because he flies.
Mortal, my friend must be
Because he dies!
Barbs has he, like a bee.
Ah, curious friend.
Thou puzzlest me

WILD NIGHTS
Author: Emily Dickinson

Wild nights. Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile the winds
To a heart in port
Done with the compass
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden.
Ah, the sea.
Might I but moor
Tonight with thee!

YOU LEFT ME
Author: Emily Dickinson

You left me, sweet, two legacies, -
A legacy of love
A Heavenly Father would content,
Had He the offer of;
You left me boundaries of pain
Capacious as the sea,
Between eternity and time,
Your consciousness and me.

A DEDICATION TO MY WIFE
Author: T.S. Eliot

To whom I owe the leaping delight
That quickens my senses in our wakingtime
And the rhythm that governs the repose of our sleepingtime,
The breathing in unison

Of lovers whose bodies smell of each other
Who think the same thoughts without the need of speech
And babble the same speech without need of meaning.

No peevish winter wind shall chill
No sullen tropic sun shall wither
The roses in the rose-garden which is ours and ours only

But this dedication is for others to read:
These are private words addressed to you in public.

AH, MY BELOVED
Author: Omar Khayyam

Ah, my beloved, fill the cup that clears
Today of past regrets and future fears-
Tomorrow? - Why, tomorrow I may be
Myself with yesterday's sev'n thousand years.

YOU KNOW, MY FRIENDS
Author: Omar Khayyam

You know, my friends, with what a brave carouse
I made a second marriage in my house
Divorced old barren Reason from my bed,
And took the daughter of the Vine to spouse.

WHO EVER LOVED THAT LOVED NOT AT FIRST SIGHT?
Author: Christopher Marlowe

It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is overruled by fate.
When two are stripped, long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should love, the other win,
And one especially do we affect
Of two gold ingots, like in each respect.
The reason no man knows; let it suffice
What we behold is censured by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight,
Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

MY TRUE LOVE HAS MY HEART
Author: Philip Sidney

My true-love hath my heart and I have his,
By just exchange one for the other given;
I hold his dear and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a better bargain driven.
My true-love hath my heart and I have his,
His heart in me keeps him and me in one;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides;
He loves my heart for once it was his own,
I cherish his because in me it bides.
My true-love hath my heart and I have his.

A DRINKING SONG
Author: William Butler Yeats

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

BROWN PENNY
Author: William Butler Yeats

I Whispered, "I am too young,"
And then, "I am old enough";
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
"Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair."
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.