A Riddle 659 66 COME, CHLOE, AND GIVE ME SWEET KISSES" COME, Chloe, and give me sweet kisses, Do you ask me how many I'd have? Then, prithee, my charmer, be kind, Count the bees that on Hybla are playing, To a heart full of love, let me hold thee, And twist round thy limbs like a vine. My life on thy lips shall be spent! But the wretch that can number his kisses, Charles Hanbury Williams [1708-1759] A RIDDLE I AM just two and two, I am warm, I am cold, I am lawful, unlawful-a duty, a fault I am often sold dear, good for nothing when bought; And yielded with pleasure when taken by force. William Cowper [1731-1800] TO A KISS SOFT child of love, thou balmy bliss, Why thou so suddenly art gone, Yet go! For wherefore should I sigh? A thousand full as sweet as thee. SONG John Wolcot [1738-1819] OFTEN I have heard it said When she kissed me once in play, In the palace of the Sun. Will they be as bright again? Not if kissed by other men. Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864] THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE 'Α βάρβιτος δὲ χορδαῖς Έρωτα μοῦνον ἠχεί—ANACREON AWAY with your fictions of flimsy romance, Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wovel Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance, Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love. "Jenny Kissed Me" Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow, If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse, Or the Nine be disposed from your service to rove, I hate you, ye cold compositions of art! 661 Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove, Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes, What are visions like these to the first kiss of love? Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth, From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove; Some portion of Paradise still is on earth, And Eden revives in the first kiss of love. When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past- Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love. George Gordon Byron [1788-1824] "JENNY KISSED ME" JENNY kissed me when we met, Say I'm weary, say I'm sad, Say that health and wealth have missed me, Say I'm growing old, but add, Jenny kissed me. Leigh Hunt [1784-1859] "I FEAR THY KISSES, GENTLE MAIDEN” I FEAR thy kisses, gentle maiden; Thou needest not fear mine; My spirit is too deeply laden Ever to burthen thine. I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion; Thou needest not fear mine; Innocent is the heart's devotion With which I worship thine. Percy Bysshe Shelley [1792-1822] LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY THE fountains mingle with the river, See the mountains kiss high heaven, Percy Bysshe Shelley [1792-1822] SONG From "In a Gondola", THE moth's kiss, first! Kiss me as if you made believe You were not sure, this eve, The First Kiss How my face, your flower, had pursed The bee's kiss, now! Kiss me as if you entered gay Robert Browning (1812-1889] SUMMUM BONUM ALL the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee: All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem: In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea: Breath and bloom, shade and shine,-wonder, wealth, and-how far above them Truth, that's brighter than gem, Trust, that's purer than pearl, Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe--all were for me In the kiss of one girl. Robert Browning (1812-1889] THE FIRST KISS IF only in dreams may man be fully blest, Her bosom beats,-I see the blue eyes beam:- |