Short Love Poems

Table of Contents

1. Alone

   by Ruby Archer

   For me the day is done,
   Though high the ardent sun;
   I feel the twilight gray.
   For you, my Love, are gone,
   My Sunlight and my Dawn,
   My Noon and all my Day.
   

2. A Woman's Love

   by Ruby Archer

   "Let me look into your eyes
   For mine image." "Is it there?"
   "Yes." "Look deeper—scan my heart.
   Do you find it?" "Yes, more fair.
   Now look you for yours in mine,"
   And her gaze went up and through.
   But she made reply—"Ah, no!
   You I see, and only you."
   

3. Drink Deep

   by Ruby Archer

   Stern Life is in a lavish mood to-day.
   She holds a brimming beaker to our lips.
   Sweet wine of love—ah, put it not away!
   Drink deep, dear heart. Life will not wait for sips.
   

4. To Yesterday

   by Ruby Archer

   O Yesterday, you saw him. In your warm
   Sweet light we wandered idly, happily.
   Unto your deep of blue his eyes were lent,
   And through your moments lingered yet his voice.
   Bide near me, Yesterday. You know of him;
   And I may turn to you―now he is gone―
   Remind you of a glance, a word, a touch,
   A thousand glints of soul revealed to soul
   And thus defer the thought of poor To-day.
   

5. Greeting

   by Annette Wynne

   Sweet as the summer breeze
   Bright as the summer sea,
   Pure as the breath of flowers
   Is the wish I wish to thee;
   High as the heaven's blue arch,
   Staunch as the woodland tree,
   Sure as the spring time's coming,
   Is the love I bear to thee.
   

6. Power of Love

   by James McIntyre

   Love it is the precious loom,
   Whose shuttle weaves each tangled thread,
   And works flowers of exquisite bloom,
   Shedding their perfume where we tread.
   

7. Love's Defect

   by Scottie McKenzie Frasier

   I can forgive the years for robbing me of youth,
   I can forgive man for taking my faith and deceiving truth.
   I can forgive friends for being ungrateful and unkind,
   I can't forgive Life for giving me love and making love blind.
   

8. Query

   by Georgia Douglas Johnson

   Is she the sage who will not sip
   The cup love presses to her lip?
   Or she who drinks the mad cup dry,
   And turns with smiling face—to die?
   

9. Silence

   by Jessie Belle Rittenhouse

   
   

   ►

   ▼

    Full Text

   O many and vain, Belovéd,
   The words I spoke to you
   In those first wondering hours
   When love was new!
   

   Now we have wandered together
   Into a mystic land,
   Now we are silent, Belovéd,
   Because we understand.
   

10. A Valentine

    by Francis William Bourdillon

    
    

    ►

    ▼

     Full Text

    What is my wish for thee, sweet Valentine?
    A song of Spring, while Winter yet is here,
    Heralding Summer in the silent year,
    Be thine!
    

    And for myself canst thou my wish divine?
    To think my greeting may be in thy sight
    Welcome as Summer's heralds, — this delight
    Be mine!
    

11. Love and Hate

    by Ellen P. Allerton

    Although a thousand leagues two hearts divide,
    That love has joined, the gulf is not so great
    As that twixt two, who, dwelling side by side
    Behold between, the black abyss of Hate.
    

12. The Quilting

    by Paul Laurence Dunbar

    Dolly sits a–quilting by her mother, stitch by stitch,
    Gracious, how my pulses throb, how my fingers itch,
    While I note her dainty waist and her slender hand,
    As she matches this and that, she stitches strand by strand.
    And I long to tell her Life’s a quilt and I’m a patch;
    Love will do the stitching if she’ll only be my match.