love & literature

“if a man wants to be romantically involved with you, he tries to kiss you. that’s the entire story, and if he doesn’t kiss you, there is never a reason to wait around for him.” - the man of my dreams, curtis sittenfeld

(via gthegentleman)

“when the world’s on fire you kiss me
and you say it’ll be alright,
oh and the more i try to resist you
the more i seem to slide into the fire”
slide, rosi golan

(via loveistodismissyourfears)

“how delicious is the winning
of a kiss at love’s beginning,
when two mutual hearts are sighing
for the knot there’s no untying!”
freedom and love, thomas campbell

(via ignitelight)

“i dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
and sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(i think i made you up inside my head.)”
mad girl’s love song, sylvia plath

(via soverypretty)

“my fingers obsessively wrote the name of my beloved up and down my arm or in my hand or on my knee. if i wrote his name a million times on my body, i believed he would kiss me … his name held for me the sacred resonance of those old testament words written in fire by an invisible hand. mene, mene, teckel, upharsin. i could not say his name aloud. i could only write it on my skin with my fingers without cease.” - the plague of doves, louise erdrich

(via gatheringkindling)

“thou know’st how guiltless first i met thy flame,
when love approach’d me under friendship’s name;
my fancy form’d thee of angelic kind,
some emanation of th’ all-beauteous Mind.
those smiling eyes, attemp’ring ev’ry day,
shone sweetly lambent with celestial day.
guiltless i gaz’d; heav’n listen’d while you sung;
and truths divine came mended from that tongue.
from lips like those what precept fail’d to move?
too soon they taught me ‘twas no sin to love.
back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran,
nor wish’d an angel whom i lov’d a man.
dim and remote the joys of saints I see;
nor envy them, that heav’n i lose for thee.”
eloisa to abelard, alexander pope

“drink to me only with thine eyes,
and i will pledge with mine;
or leave a kiss but in the cup,
and i’ll not look for wine.”
to celia, ben jonson

(via prettyfoods)

“she paints the purple year with vary’d show,
tips the green gem, and makes the blossom glow.
she makes the turgid buds receive the breeze,
expand to leaves, and shade the naked trees.
when gath’ring damps the misty nights diffuse,
she sprinkles all the morn with balmy dews;
bright trembling pearls depend at every spray,
and kept from falling, seem to fall away.
a glossy freshness hence the rose receives,
and blushes sweet through all her silken leaves;
(the drops descending through the silent night,
while stars serenely roll their golden light,)
close ‘till the morn, her humid veil she holds;
then deckt with virgin pomp the flow’r unfolds.
soon will the morning blush: ye maids! prepare,
in rosy garlands bind your flowing hair.
‘tis venus’s plant: the blood fair venus shed,
o’er the gay beauty poured immortal red;
from love’s soft kiss a sweet ambrosial smell
was taught for ever on the leaves to dwell;
from gemms, from flames, from orient rays of light
the richest lustre makes her purple bright;
and she to morrow weds; the sporting gale
unties her zone, she bursts the verdant veil;
thro’ all her sweets the riffling lover flies,
and as he breathes, her glowing fires arise.
let those love now, who never loved before,
let those who always loved, now love the more.”
pervigilium veneris, tiberianus

“alas, how easily things go wrong!
a sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
and there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
and life is never the same again.

alas, how hardly things go right!
‘tis hard to watch in a summer night,
for the sigh will come, and the kiss will stay,
and the summer night is a winter day.”
phantastes, george macdonald

(via gonorthwriteaway)

“steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
yes, the Lord with give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.”
psalm 85:10-12

“i shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
i lift my lids and all is born again.
(i think i made you up inside my head.)

the stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
and arbitrary blackness gallops in:
i shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

i dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
and sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(i think i made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
exit seraphim and satan’s men:
i shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

i fancied you’d return the way you said,
but i grow old and i forget your name.
(i think i made you up inside my head.)

i should have loved a thunderbird instead;
at least when spring comes they roar back again.
i shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(i think i made you up inside my head.)”
mad girl’s love song, sylvia plath