Liberian Literary Magazine
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
[Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome]
Yet is the praise not mine in this or that,
But the praise is to Thee in both that and
this.
Rabia al Basri
Christina Rossetti, 1830 - 1894
Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from
me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet
home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose
knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and
come
And so because you love me, and
because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a
wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your
honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the
flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends
the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and
death.
I Need Not Go –
Thomas Hardy
I need not go
Through sleet and snow
To where I know
She waits for me;
She will wait me there
Till I find it fair,
And have time to spare
From company.
When I've overgot
The world somewhat,
When things cost not
Such stress and strain,
Is soon enough
By cypress sough
To tell my Love
I am come again.
And if some day,
When none cries nay,
I still delay
To seek her side,
(Though ample measure
Of fitting leisure
Await my pleasure)
She will not chide.
Love
I have loved Thee with two loves a selfish love and a love that is worthy of
Thee.
As for the love which is selfish,
Therein I occupy myself with Thee,
to the exclusion of all others.
But in the love which is worthy of Thee,
Thou dost raise the veil that I may see
Thee.
What--not upbraid me
That I delayed me,
Nor ask what stayed me
So long? Ah, no! New cares may claim me,
New loves inflame me,
She will not blame me,
But suffer it so.
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