~Lyle Lovett
Twelve days until V-day. I don't usually really celebrate it, because I don't generally favor the commercialism tripe. Does anyone even know why we celebrate St. Valentine? Was he an actual person? Did he shoot arrows at people? Who IS this guy?
And Love? To encase something like love in a box of cheap chocolates just diminishes the whole concept, don't you think? Don't get me wrong, I do like love. No - I love...Love. (?) Love is great and terrible, miraculous and tragic (those are opposites, right?). Love is a mind-boggling, heart-wrenching, life-altering concept, which in the end (no matter how trivial our attempts may be) makes it totally worth celebrating.
And so I decided this year I'm going gung-ho and celebrating like crazy (well, moderately crazy)! Bring on the construction paper and glitter and sugar cookies and chocolates, and...
blogs dedicated to all things love-related.
My first "dedication to love and love-like things" is a poem that illustrates the wonderfully devastating affects of desire (thus, it's title). Who has not experienced this at some point in their lives? I hope it's not just me that has succombed to such base sentiments. That would just make me feel really dumb. In a passionate sort of way, so I guess I don't feel that bad about it.
ANYway...
This poem was written by Sir Philip Sydney, who in fact was a distant cousin of St. Valentine.
(I'm kidding).
DESIRE ~by Sir Philip Sydney (1554-1586)
Thou blind man's mark, thou fool's self-chosen snare, Fond Fancy's scum and dregs of scattered thought,
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care,
Thou web of will whose end is never wrought;
Desire! desire, I have too dearly bought
With price of mangled mind thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought,
In vain thou mad'st me to vain things aspire,
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire.
For virtue hath this better lesson taught,
Within myself to seek my only hire,
Desiring nought but how to kill desire.
XOXO
~M
4 comments:
I just like the fact that Nathan brings me flowers on V-Day. I only get flowers twice a year and wish I did more... because I LOVE flowers.... so I'll take the flowers and I'll give him chocolate and eat most of it myself. :o)
One year I made a list of 101 reasons why I loved my husband. When he read it, it made him laugh, cry, smile, giggle, shake his head, blush....that is my favorite V-Day memory.
"But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought,
In vain thou mad'st me to vain things aspire,"
ahhh, i know exactly how that feels
"Desiring nought but how to kill desire."
and there's the rub.
great choice of poems
... for it "desire" is the cup that cant' be filled. xox
I want you to post the poem you wrote for Sam that accidentally turned out to be a little dirty :)
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