I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets From The Portuguese
From low desires, from restlessness and sin,
To heights that else we had not reached; and thus
We find the Heaven we dared not hope to win.
How clearer seem designs immortal when
Our lives are fed on Love’s fine regimen.
-As Light Leaps Up, a Sonnet by Gilbert Parker
It was well for both Phil and Mary that he had known her so long and understood so thoroughly the ins and outs of her honest little heart. This was not the first time that he had known her to make some renunciation for conscience’ sake, and although her letter gave him a jolt for an hour or so, after several readings he folded it up with a smile and slipped it into the package with the others marked “From the Little Vicar.”
He hadn’t the faintest intention of being “renounced.” Moreover, he was positive that he had only to see her and urge a few good arguments in his favor, to convince her that he would never be in the way of what she considered her duty or tryst.
But a very tender regard lay under his smile of amusement for the attitude she had taken, and a feeling of reverence possessed him as he saw her in the new light which this revelation of her spiritual life gave him. “Nobody is good enough for little Mary Ware,” he had once said when she was eleven, romping on her pony and he six years her senior. He was thinking of her unselfishness, her sturdy sincerity, her courage. He was thinking of her as this letter revealed her, a white-souled maiden who took the stars as a symbol of her duty, and who would not swerve a hair’s-breath from the orbit which she thought was heaven appointed.
His plan of action was clear. He would take the first train and, before Mary could recover from the surprise, overwhelm her with his winning insistence. He wasn’t going to give her another chance to change her mind again...
He hadn’t the faintest intention of being “renounced.” Moreover, he was positive that he had only to see her and urge a few good arguments in his favor, to convince her that he would never be in the way of what she considered her duty or tryst.
But a very tender regard lay under his smile of amusement for the attitude she had taken, and a feeling of reverence possessed him as he saw her in the new light which this revelation of her spiritual life gave him. “Nobody is good enough for little Mary Ware,” he had once said when she was eleven, romping on her pony and he six years her senior. He was thinking of her unselfishness, her sturdy sincerity, her courage. He was thinking of her as this letter revealed her, a white-souled maiden who took the stars as a symbol of her duty, and who would not swerve a hair’s-breath from the orbit which she thought was heaven appointed.
His plan of action was clear. He would take the first train and, before Mary could recover from the surprise, overwhelm her with his winning insistence. He wasn’t going to give her another chance to change her mind again...
-Adapted from Mary Ware's Promised Land by Annie Fellows Johnston
A few feet below a little crystal stream fell, foaming and flashing down the rocks with a silver tinkle. It was a fairy place. Honor could hardly speak her delight but simply under her breath, “Oh!” A glance told Zitli all her wanted to know. The boy’s face shone with pleasure.
“I have kept this for mademoiselle!” he said. “It is my own place.”
“It’s the most beautiful place I ever saw in my life,” said Honor simply.
“Tiens! I am glad it pleases you. After my hunting accident, there was more of pain than anything else for me. I was little, the pain was large. I cried, but could not be consoled. I made much trouble for my mother and brother. One day, when the pain seemed too large, my mother brought me here and said, ‘My child, behold the glory of God! Behold how it is wide, how it is great, how it is beautiful. Do not let the pain that is in thy body destroy in thy soul the sense of thankfulness!’ Mademoiselle, that was the grand lesson of my childhood, that I was to be thankful. Since that day, all my life I am thankful. I have no more pain, or not very often. It is no longer larger than I am. I laugh at it! It goes like that!”
He picked up a pebble and sent it skipping down the mountain-side.
“It is good to be here with you, Zitli. I have learned things that I shall never forget.”
“Merci, mademoiselle!” he said with a quick look of pleasure. “I thank you from my heart.”
“I have never had a boy friend. I should like very much to have you for a friend. Will you have me?”
A flush rose to the boy’s suntanned cheek.
“What happiness for me, mademoiselle!”
They shook hands gravely, and Honor drew a long breath of contentment.
“I have kept this for mademoiselle!” he said. “It is my own place.”
“It’s the most beautiful place I ever saw in my life,” said Honor simply.
“Tiens! I am glad it pleases you. After my hunting accident, there was more of pain than anything else for me. I was little, the pain was large. I cried, but could not be consoled. I made much trouble for my mother and brother. One day, when the pain seemed too large, my mother brought me here and said, ‘My child, behold the glory of God! Behold how it is wide, how it is great, how it is beautiful. Do not let the pain that is in thy body destroy in thy soul the sense of thankfulness!’ Mademoiselle, that was the grand lesson of my childhood, that I was to be thankful. Since that day, all my life I am thankful. I have no more pain, or not very often. It is no longer larger than I am. I laugh at it! It goes like that!”
He picked up a pebble and sent it skipping down the mountain-side.
“It is good to be here with you, Zitli. I have learned things that I shall never forget.”
“Merci, mademoiselle!” he said with a quick look of pleasure. “I thank you from my heart.”
“I have never had a boy friend. I should like very much to have you for a friend. Will you have me?”
A flush rose to the boy’s suntanned cheek.
“What happiness for me, mademoiselle!”
They shook hands gravely, and Honor drew a long breath of contentment.
-Honor Bright, Laura Richards
Lifts from the dewy wells of her eyes;
Her cheek deepens to a pale rose tinge-
And doth she love him? Hush! that look replies.
-Alice Cary
Then old Hildgardmar, stretching out his hands, said, ‘Because even in childhood days thou ever kept in view the sterling yardstick as I bade thee, because no single strand of all the golden thread that Clotho gave thee was thoughtlessly squandered on shepherd lad or troubadour, as Hertha and Herthold had done in secret and so defiled the wearing of the mantle; because thou waited till thy woman’s fingers wrought the best that lay within thy woman’s heart, all happiness shall now be thine! receive it as thy perfect crown!”
So with her father’s blessing upon her, she rode away beside her prince; and ever after, all her life was filled with happiness as it had been written for her in the stars.
-The Three Weavers, Annie Fellows Johnston
-Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
-Victor Hugo
THOMAS: 'Tis no place for a girl, and thine honored mother would like it not if I let thee go.
FAITH: Then let us stay on the hill and watch the ship come in.
THOMAS: But I would rather be with the other lads. Thou art a maid and 'tis time thou learnt that a maid cannot do as boys do.
FAITH: But I can. I can row and fish and walk as far without being wearied as either thou or Francis. And did I not even wring a fowl’s neck with my own eyes shut?
THOMAS: (Scoffingly) Ay, and cried the rest of the day over it’s poor dead head...I can wait no longer.
FAITH: Perhaps thou art so anxious because thou art expecting a letter from her of whom thou has told me...(Wistfully) Nay, I would not keep thee against thy will. I will stay here. Go thou to the wharf with the other boys.
THOMAS: (With becoming dignity) It would scarce become a squire, and one who hopes some day to be a knight, to desert a lady.
FAITH: (Simply) But I am not a lady, at least not such a one as thy Lady Emilia of the Castle.
THOMAS: Thou shalt play thou are my lady - for the time. Of course thou knowest that Lady Emilia, and she only, is the lady of my heart, and that I came to this country so that I might win fame and honor for her. But since it is well for a squire to have some one to whom to pay his devoirs, and since, also, thou needest a proper squire, I tell thee, Faith, that thou shalt be my lady, and in all things will I be thy faithful squire.
FAITH: And I tell thee that I’ll have none of thy make-believe, Master Thomas. Think’st thou I’ll let thee practise thy rules of knightly conduct on me, so that when thou returnest to England, thy Lady Emilia may marvel that we in the wilderness had bred so true a knight?
THOMAS: Thou need’st not speak with such scorn. Many a maid would not take it ill that I offered her my services as true and loyal squire, telling her fairly and squarely, that mine heart was long ago given to another - and hers to me.
FAITH: Then find such a maid! Only, let me tell thee, she is not my mother’s daughter. Besides, if I need a squire, which I do not, for I can take care of myself, I would not take thee.
-A Puritan Knight Errant, Edith Robinson
RICHARD: (Reproachfully) Without my having done my part to win it? Not until I’ve bombed at least one Hun. A hundred Huns.
GEORGINA: You’re sounding like Horatius again.
RICHARD: It’s hard for a woman to understand a man’s duty.
GEORGINA: (Puts her hand on his arm) In all the years we’ve been growing up together, do you think it possible that I don’t understand? (RICHARD stops and looks at her with an expression she has never seen before)
RICHARD: Do you know you’re the dearest thing to me in the world? (Taking both her hands in his) Georgina, do you think of me just as a brother? (GEORGINA's uplifted face gives him his answer) I - I want to take back everything I said about Watson and war weddings. I believe in them now. Couldn’t you...wouldn’t you...? But I can't ask it. It wouldn’t be fair to you...If only I could feel that you really belonged to me...
GEORGINA: Oh, Richard, please ask me...
GEORGINA: (With a full heart) I've wanted you to ask me to marry you since we were six. (He embraces her with joy) But do you really think a whirlwind ceremony could make us feel we belonged to each other any more than we already do, any more than we have all our lives?
RICHARD: (Disappointed) I suppose not. (Insisting) But to have and hold at the altar of God...to possess you as my own, even for a few hours...
GEORGINA: (Breaks out into sobs) Oh Richard, I’ve imagined our life together so many times, our wedding day, our little honeymoon home in Mr. Johnson’s attic, our first breakfast together with you smiling at me across the table... But, if we marry now, the thought of doing all those lovely things without you...(She buries her head in his shoulder)
RICHARD: (After a few moments of comforting her...Tenderly) You’re right, of course. (After a hard moment) We’ll wait... (In a lighter tone) There’s naught to fear lass, my arms are around you and will be, even in my dreams. (He lifts her chin up with his hand) You promised to send me off with a smile - a real star-spangled bannery kind, with the star of true blue courage in your eyes.
GEORGINA: I didn’t realize then how hard it was going to be.
RICHARD: Don’t you know a maid’s smile binds her warrior’s sash better than tears? A fellow would back a smile against the weeps in a race to Berlin any time.
GEORGINA: (Trying to smile bravely) That doesn’t sound like Horatius.
RICHARD: (Laughing) It’s my own poor prose.
GEORGINA: Not poor! (Holding him tightly to her) O God, take into Thy special care and keeping, those who go forth to defend us, both upon the high seas and... in the boundless battle plains of the air.
RICHARD: (With a depth of love, and a shadow of a smile) Amen!
-Adapted from Georgina's Service Stars by Annie Fellows Johnston
Your heart anticipate my heart,
You must be just before, in fine,
See and make me see, for your part,
New depths of the Divine!
-Robert Browning
That no one else had heard,
But when my soul was faced with yours,
Your heart knew every word...
-Gay Talbott Boassy
ELIZABETH: Ardent and lovely! (With a bitter smile) I suppose he told you that I am - a dying woman?
BROWNING: We are all of us - dying.
ELIZABETH: Mr. Browning, do you find me such a very pitiable object?
BROWNING: I find you, as I expected to find you, full of courage and gaiety. And as far as that background goes, the whole must be repainted!...And if only you'll allow it - I must have a hand in that splendid work. (Carried away) I'll dip my brush into the sunrise and the sunset and the rainbow! You say my verses have helped you - they're nothing. It's I - I who am going to help you now! We have come together at last - and I don't intend to let you go again. (He bends forward and takes her hands) I've more life than is good for one man - it seethes and races in me. Up to now I've spent a little of it in creating imaginary men and women. But there's still so much that I've no use for but to give! May I give it to you?...
-Adapted from The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolph Besier
Of all Love’s tributaries; with her the sea
Of Love spread out towards eternity;
And there my coarser touched her finer sense.
Poor though I am in my own sight, I know
That thou has winnowed, sweet, what best I am;
Upon my restlessness thy ample calm
Hath fallen as on frost-bound earth the snow.
It hideth the harsh furrows that the wheels
Of heavy trials made in Life’s campaign;
Upon its pure unfolding sunshine steals,
And there is promise of the spring again...
-Love's Tributaries, Sonnet by Gilbert Parker
It passed into thy lifelong regency.
-Gilbert Parker
Which I desir'd and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.
-John Donne, The Good Morrow
New joys that were not mine before;
Because you love me I can choose
To look through your dear eyes and see
Beyond the beauty of the Now
Far onward to Eternity.
- Old Pall Mall Magazine Article
Something in her, like to a hidden thought
Within my life, that long time I had sought,
But never found till her soul spoke to me.
And if she said a thousand times, “I did
Not call thee, thou cam’st seeking; not my voice
Was it thou heard’st; thy love was not my choice!”
I should straightway reply, “That of thee hid,
Even from thyself, lest it should startle thee,
Hath called me, made me slave and king in one;
And when the mists of Time shall rise, and we
Stand forth, it shall be said, Since Time begun
Ye two were called as one from that high hill,
Where the creating Master hath His will.
-Mio Destino, A Sonnet by Gilbert Parker
MISS MEREDITH: I thought you were only 16.
ANDY: Well, I’m pretty near 17 and that makes me almost 18 – well, 21 really. You’re 23 and that’s just beyond 21 and what’s a year’s difference between us?
MISS MEREDITH: Andy, what are you trying to say?
ANDY: (He rashly takes her hand and kisses it) Oh, Miss Meredith, could you believe that somebody my age can be in love?
MISS MEREDITH: (Reluctantly) Yes, I can.
ANDY: What I want to know is – could I ever have any kind of chance with you? Don’t you understand? I’m trying to ask you to marry me…
MISS MEREDITH: (Taking in the situation) You’re seeing me through rose-colored glasses. Why, when I look at myself, then back at you in all the glory of your 17 years, I feel old and humble. Think of all the mysterious, wonderful things that will happen to you. Why Andy, in a couple of years I’ll be that old dramatics teacher. There’ll be a dozen other girls that will come into your life.
ANDY: Twelve different girls in two years?
MISS MEREDITH: It’s inevitable when a man’s attractive.
ANDY: Do you think I’m attractive, Rose?
MISS MEREDITH: (Recovering) No girl could ever forget you. You know the old saying: ‘Love is to a man a thing apart but to a woman, existence’.
ANDY: Yeah, that’s right. I got a lot of things to think about other than love. I’ve got to go to college…and one day I hope to make it to the Supreme Court.
MISS MEREDITH: And I think you will make it, Andy, and there’ll be plenty of women in your life, too.
ANDY: Sure, there’s a lot of beautiful women in Washington – foreigners, you know, spies, lobbyists…You have no hard feelings toward me?
MISS MEREDITH: Oh no, Andy. I always knew we could never be anything but a milestone in each other’s lives. (Plucks a flower from her vase) Here Andy, won’t you take this to remember me by?
ANDY: Gee, I’m gonna remember you always, until I get to college, anyhow. A man’d be a fool to promise anything in the face of 2,000 co-eds…
-Adapted from Love Finds Andy Hardy
-The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding, Annie Fellows Johnston
And live within thy presence, as a ray
Of light lives in the brightness of the day;
And finds in thy most sweet completeness
My heaven and my home...
-Robert Browning
In my heart, you're ne'er forgot.
I shall hope with Love's allegiance,
That you, too, forget me not!
-A Victorian Valentine's Card
-Robert Browning