Poetry for Valentine's Day, from Don Juan, by that great Regency poet, Lord Byron.
A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth, and love,
And beauty, all concentrating like rays
Into one focus, kindled from above;
Such kisses as belong to early days,
Where heart, and soul, and sense, in concert move,
And the blood 's lava, and the pulse a blaze,
Each kiss a heart-quake,-- for a kiss's strength,
I think, it must be reckon'd by its length.
By length I mean duration; theirs endured
Heaven knows how long-- no doubt they never reckon'd;
And if they had, they could not have secured
The sum of their sensations to a second:
They had not spoken; but they felt allured,
As if their souls and lips each other beckon'd,
Which, being join'd, like swarming bees they clung--
Their hearts the flowers from whence the honey sprung.
Wherever you are, we hope your day is full of romance.
1 comment:
"Each kiss a heart-quake,-- for a kiss's strength,
I think, it must be reckon'd by its length."
So maybe Byron would have been less than impressed by the 'hard, punishing' and very short kisses that some romance heroes give.
The kiss at the end of a Barbara Cartland is usually very long, but perhaps he'd have found different grounds for not approving of those. Or, who knows, maybe he'd have liked them.
Post a Comment