women, dancing

I went to the shopping mall yesterday and scoured all the bookstores (okay, just 2) for pretty letter sets. There’s a sorry number of not-so-pretty ones available. I have never been big on correspondence, much less through the traditional snail mail.

But, I’ve recently been given the chance to visit my parents in California (they’ve been away from the Philippines since 2003, and have gone back and forth very infrequently) and I thought something from the mail could definitely cheer my father up considerably.

So, tonight, I’ll draft my letter in my beautiful (if I may say so myself) penmanship and hope and pray that it reaches my father happy and well.

In the meantime, here’s a lovely love letter from Goethe that’s believed to be written on 17 June 1784. I especially liked the first sentence and first paragraph. Enjoy.

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My letters will have shown you how lovely I am. I don’t dine at Court, I see few people, and take my walks alone, and at every beautiful spot I wish you were there.

I can’t help loving you more than is good for me; I shall feel all the happier when I see you again. I am always conscious of my nearness to you, your presence never leaves me. In you I have a measure for every woman, for everyone; in your love a measure for all that is to be.

Not in the sense that the rest of the world seems obscure to me, on the contrary, your love makes it clear; I see quite clearly what men are like and what they plan, wish, do and enjoy; I don’t grudge them what they have, and comparing is a secret joy to me, possessing as I do such an imperishable treasure.

You in your household must feel as I often do in my affairs; we often don’t notice objects simply because we don’t choose to look at them, but things acquire an interest as soon as we see clearly the way they are related to each other. For we always like to join in, and the good man takes pleasure in arranging, putting in order and furthering the right and its peaceful rule.

Adieu, you whom I love a thousand times.”

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(copied from http://loveletterscentral.com/88/a-romantic-love-letter-written-by-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/

“When we two parted”

29 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by gracevill in poetry

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in silence and tears, lord byron, love, poetry, when we two parted

Lord Byron

CXC. “When we two parted”

WHEN we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted,
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,	5
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this!
The dew of the morning
Sunk chill on my brow;	10
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame:
I hear thy name spoken	15
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o’er me—
Why wert thou so dear?	20
They know not I knew thee
Who knew thee too well:
Long, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met:	25
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,	30
How should I greet thee?—
With silence and tears.