Coventry Patmore Quotes

The sunshine dreaming upon Salmon’s height
Is not so sweet and white
As the most heretofore sin-spotted Soul
That darts to its delight
Straight from the absolution of a faithful fight.

How light the touches are that kiss
The music from the chords of life!

Why, having won her, do I woo?
Because her spirit's vestal grace
Provokes me always to pursue,
But, spirit-like, eludes embrace.[…]
Because though free of the outer court
I am, this Temple keeps its shrine
Sacred to Heaven; because, in short,
She's not and never can be mine.

I vowed unvarying faith, and she
To whom in full I pay that vow,
Rewards me with variety
Which men who change can never know.

She is both heaven and the way.

The bliss which woman's charms bespeak,
"I've sought in many, found in none!"
"In many 'tis in vain you seek
"What can be found in only one.

A woman is a foreign land.

I saw you take his kiss!" "'Tis true."
"O, modesty!" "'Twas strictly kept:
He thought me asleep; at least, I knew
He thought I thought he thought I slept.

Without his knowledge he was won;
Against his nature kept devout;
She'll never tell him how 'twas done,
And he will never find it out.
If, sudden, he suspects her wiles,
And hears her forging chain and trap,
And looks, she sits in simple smiles,
Her two hands lying in her lap.
Her secret (privilege of the Bard,
Whose fancy is of either sex),
Is mine; but let the darkness guard
Myst'ries that light would more perplex!

The beauty in her lover's eyes
Was admiration of her own.

What seems to us for us is true.
The planet has no proper light,
And yet when Venus is in view,
No primal star is half so bright.

Bright looks reply, approving so
Beauty's elixir vitæ, praise.

The moods of love are like the wind,
And none know whence or why they rise.

I drew my bride, beneath the moon,
Across my threshold; happy hour!
But, ah, the walk that afternoon
We saw the water-flags in flower!

Love wakes men, once a lifetime each;
They lift their heavy lids, and look;
And, lo, what one sweet page can teach,
They read with joy, then shut the book.