The most romantic lines/passages in literature

[kelby_lake]

By 'romantic', I do not mean slushy pulp fiction romance.

[Pecksie]

Even though the scene itself is more pathetic than romantic (and not without humour as well), I love this line from Chapter IV of Hardy's 'Far from the Madding Crowd':

'I shall do one thing in this life -- one thing certain -- that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die'.

[Transmodernism]

There is a strange and wonderful passage from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court which has fascinated me for some time. You wouldn't think of Mark Twain as the type to write romantically. Yet in this novel, out of the blue, while the Yankee is travelling with Alisande on horseback and day-dreaming we suddenly get this passage:

Billows of thought came rolling over my soul, and the voice faded out of my hearing!
Fifteen! Break—my heart! oh, my lost darling! Just her age who was so gentle, and lovely, and all the world to me, and whom I shall never see again! How the thought of her carries me back over wide seas of memory to a vague dim time, a happy time, so many, many centuries hence, when I used to wake in the soft summer mornings, out of sweet dreams of her, and say "Hello, Central!" just to hear her dear voice come melting back to me with a "Hello, Hank!" that was music of the spheres to my enchanted ear. She got three dollars a week, but she was worth it.

-------------

I don't know if it's the most romantic passage ever, but it is interesting coming from Mark Twain. It turns out that this passage was inspired by a very beautiful recurring dream that he had; in the dream, Clemens always found himself with the same girl, his "platonic sweetheart," and they were always fifteen.

[laymonite]

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe, "Annabel Lee" (last two stanzas)

[Alexander III]

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle;--
Why not I with thine?

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained it's brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?


- Percy Bysshe Shelley

[Transmodernism]

The fountains mingle with the river,
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle;--
Why not I with thine?


It's strange that he says "by a law divine." I thought Shelley was an atheist. Maybe he was fudging it. Or maybe he was in the closet.

[kelby_lake]

Preferably lines/passages from prose as opposed to the poetic form. I'm looking for overlooked moments, not a love poem anthology.

[kiki1982]

I have a few which I like:

"Rosa baissa les yeux toute rougissante. De sorte qu'elle ne vit pas rapprocher les lèvres de Cornélius qui ne rencontrèrent, hélas! que le grillage; mais qui malgré cet obstacle, envoyèrent jusqu'aux lèvres de la jeune fille le souffle ardent du plus tendre des baisers.' (Alexandre Dumas, La Tulipe Noire)

"Rosa looked down blushing. So that she did not see Cornélius's lips approaching which only encountered, alas! the bars [of his prison]; but which, despite this obstacle, sent to the lips of the young girl the ardent breath of the tenderest of kisses.' (Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip)

ah

Though there is not supposed to be poetry in this topic, Cyrano is an anomaly in that it was written, not as a piece of poetry per se, but as a last hurrah of the great French romantic era and a last pîece of theatre, worthy of the classics. I suppose it does not qualify as poetry really...

"Roxane:
[...] Quels mots me direz-vous?
Cyrano:
Tous ceux, tous ceux, tous ceux
Qui me viendront. Je veux vous les jeter, en touffe
Sans les mettre en bouquet: je vous aime, j'étouffe,
Je t'aime, je suis fou, je n'en peux plus, c'est trop;
Ton nom est dans mon coeur comme dans un grelot,
Et comme tout le temps, Roxane, je frissonne,
Tout le temps, le grelot s'agite, et le nom sonne
De toi, je me souviens de tout, j'ai tout aimé:
Je sais que l'an dernier, un jour, le douze mai,
Pour sortir le matin tu changeas de coiffure!
J'ai tellement pris pour clarté ta chevelure
Que, comme lorsqu'on a trop fixé le soleil,
On voit sur toute chose ensuite un rond vermeil,
Sur tout, quand, j'ai quitté les feux dont tu m'inondes,
Mon regard ébloui pose des taches blondes!" (Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand)

"Roxane:
[...] Which words will you say to me?
Cyrano:
All those, all those, all those
Which will come to me. I want to throw them to you, in bunches
without putting them in a bouquet: I love you, I choke,
I love you, I am mad, I cannot go on any longer, it is too much;
Your name sits in my heart like the ball in a bell,
And as I tremble all the time, Roxane,
All the time, the bell trembles, and your name sounds.
I remember everything, I have loved everything:
I know that last year, one day, the twelfth of May,
You changed your hairdo to go out in the morning!
I took your hair so much for light
That - like when one stares too much at the sun,
One sees a little round of vermeil on everything -
When I left the fire with which you overflow me,
My blinded look puts blonde specks on everything!" (Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand)

And my signature (second one).

That is really high romantic, isn't it? Still, that piece has so much depth! I think it is not easily beatable :D. If an man told me that... he'd have success straight away :ladysman:.

[Alexander III]

It's strange that he says "by a law divine." I thought Shelley was an atheist. Maybe he was fudging it. Or maybe he was in the closet.


You have to understand that this is poesy nor prose, thus words are not definitions of concepts but rather symbols which convey atmosphere, emotions and music.

Thus "law divine" is not a reference to christianity but rather it can be seen as the eternal and incomprehensible nature of the universe, using "divine" adds a sense of awe and sanctity to the way's of the universe and nature, creating a scene were life itself is holy and being is holy and beauty is holy, holy because they are unknown, holy because they are all we have.

Oh and Shelley was in respects more pantheistic and deist in his philosophy than atheistic.

[wessexgirl]

Even though the scene itself is more pathetic than romantic (and not without humour as well), I love this line from Chapter IV of Hardy's 'Far from the Madding Crowd':

'I shall do one thing in this life -- one thing certain -- that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die'.

That's funny, as the first thought that occurred to me was from FFTMC too, but at the end. I'm thinking off the top of my head here without the book in front of me, but it's when Gabriel says something about "when I look up, there shall you be...." etc. I think he's repeating what he said earlier, but I can't remember as it's been years since I read it. Two characters who have gone through so much and grown, and Bathsheba knows that she not only loves him but respects him too. Aahhhhh.....:smile5:

[Pecksie]

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle;--
Why not I with thine?

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained it's brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?


- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Gorgeous.

[kiki1982]

That's funny, as the first thought that occurred to me was from FFTMC too, but at the end. I'm thinking off the top of my head here without the book in front of me, but it's when Gabriel says something about "when I look up, there shall you be...." etc. I think he's repeating what he said earlier, but I can't remember as it's been years since I read it. Two characters who have gone through so much and grown, and Bathsheba knows that she not only loves him but respects him too. Aahhhhh.....:smile5:

Yes, ahh, that last piece is so sweet, isn't it? When they remark that he has mastered to say "my wife" in a more used tone than a fellow of twenty years' standing... It is kind of weird when you get married, but that conclusion is kind of sweet :)

[Alakazam]

“A pain stabbed my heart as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world”
--Jack Kerouac

[kelby_lake]

“A pain stabbed my heart as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world”
--Jack Kerouac

Nice. This is the sort of stuff I'm looking for, romantic lines and passages that have not been endlessly quoted.

[Tallon]

i always liked:

"He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking."

From Anna Karenina

[kelby_lake]

i always liked:

"He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking."

From Anna Karenina

Aw, that's lovely. Is it Levin or Vronsky?

[Alakazam]

"...her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood."
--James Joyce

[Nazish]

James Joyce? which book please?

[Alakazam]

that's from "Araby" in Dubliners

[kelby_lake]

"...her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood."
--James Joyce

;) *immature schoolgirl giggles* Nice quote though.

[Tallon]

Aw, that's lovely. Is it Levin or Vronsky?

I'm pretty sure it's Levin, but i can't remember for certain :)

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

"I am a sick man . . . I am a wicked man. An unattractive man, I think my liver hurts."

[kelby_lake]

I'm pretty sure it's Levin, but i can't remember for certain :)

Sounds like Levin. Aww... :)

[Varenne Rodin]

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle;--
Why not I with thine?

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained it's brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?


- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Very romantic indeed.

[prendrelemick]

Miss Callan, who is the lustre of her own sex and the astonishment of ours.-Joyce

Not so romantic, and certainly spoken with some irony, but I like the concept of an astonishingly lovely woman.

[julian94]

It would be interesting if someone were to find a romantic passage where physical beauty is completely non-existent :P.

[Silas Thorne]

A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover
by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Ancient person, for whom I
All the flattering youth defy,
Long be it ere thou grow old,
Aching, shaking, crazy, cold;
But still continue as thou art,
Ancient person of my heart.


On thy withered lips and dry,
Which like barren furrows lie,
Brooding kisses I will pour
Shall thy youthful [heat] restore
(Such kind showers in autumn fall,
And a second spring recall);
Nor from thee will ever part,
Ancient person of my heart.


Thy nobler part, which but to name
In our sex would be counted shame,
By age’s frozen grasp possessed,
From [his] ice shall be released,
And soothed by my reviving hand,
In former warmth and vigor stand.
All a lover’s wish can reach
For thy joy my love shall teach,
And for they pleasure shall improve
All that art can add to love.
Yet still I love thee without art,
Ancient person of my heart.

[Silas Thorne]

John Donne Elegy XX : To His Mistress Going to Bed

COME, madam, come, all rest my powers defy ;
Until I labour, I in labour lie.
The foe ofttimes, having the foe in sight,
Is tired with standing, though he never fight.
Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glittering,
But a far fairer world encompassing.
Unpin that spangled breast-plate, which you wear,
That th' eyes of busy fools may be stopp'd there.
Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime
Tells me from you that now it is bed-time.
Off with that happy busk, which I envy,
That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.
Your gown going off such beauteous state reveals,
As when from flowery meads th' hill's shadow steals.
Off with your wiry coronet, and show
The hairy diadems which on you do grow.
Off with your hose and shoes ; then softly tread
In this love's hallow'd temple, this soft bed.
In such white robes heaven's angels used to be
Revealed to men ; thou, angel, bring'st with thee
A heaven-like Mahomet's paradise ; and though
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know
By this these angels from an evil sprite ;
Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.
Licence my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below.
O, my America, my Newfoundland,
My kingdom, safest when with one man mann'd,
My mine of precious stones, my empery ;
How am I blest in thus discovering thee !
To enter in these bonds, is to be free ;
Then, where my hand is set, my soul shall be.
Full nakedness ! All joys are due to thee ;
As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be
To taste whole joys. Gems which you women use
Are like Atlanta's ball cast in men's views ;
That, when a fool's eye lighteth on a gem,
His earthly soul might court that, not them.
Like pictures, or like books' gay coverings made
For laymen, are all women thus array'd.
Themselves are only mystic books, which we
—Whom their imputed grace will dignify—
Must see reveal'd. Then, since that I may know,
As liberally as to thy midwife show
Thyself ; cast all, yea, this white linen hence ;
There is no penance due to innocence :
To teach thee, I am naked first ; why then,
What needst thou have more covering than a man?

[Emil Miller]

In my view they don't get much better than this:

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.

F. Scott-Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby.

[kelby_lake]

I do love that passage :D

[Megz]

"... Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"
-Heathcliff speaking about Catherine from Wuthering Heights

To me, even though Heathcliff is a tyrant and a mad, miserable man, he loves Catherine with his whole being. Granted, he also says he hopes she is not at rest but as miserable in the after life as he is in life, but I believe this quote is true suffering and despair from a man who has lost himself along with the woman he loves. To me true love is the highest highs and the lowest lows. Capable of inflicting pain and suffering and healing a broken heart. :)

[kelby_lake]

I do love that Wuthering Heights quote :D

[First thoughts]

As the patient eyes were lifted to his face, he saw a sudden doubt in them, and then astonishment. He pressed the work-worn, hunger-worn young fingers, and touched his lips.
'Are you dying for him?' she whispered.
'And his wife and child. Hush! Yes.'
'O you will let me hold your brave hand, stranger?'
'Hush! Yes, my poor sister; to the last.'

[Ancasta]

"Lucy, take my love. One day share my life. Be my dearest, first on earth."
Villette by Charlotte Bronte

[Sweetbbshop]

In my view they don't get much better than this:

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.

F. Scott-Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby.


UFf! WOW! I think that passaged stopped my breath and sprung me back to life!

[PoeticPassions]

Here is another from Fitzgerald:
"As he held her and tasted her, as as she curved in further and further toward him, with her own lips, new to herself, drowned and engulfed in love, yet solaced and triumphant, he was thankful to have an existence at all, if only as a reflection in her wet eyes." Tender is the Night
******


"He had not stopped desiring her for a single instant. He found her in the dark bedrooms of captured towns, especially in the most abject ones, and he would make her materialize in the smell of dry blood on the bandages of the wounded, in the instantaneous terror of the danger of death, at all times and in all places. He had fled from her in an attempt to wipe out her memory, not only through distance but by means of a muddled fury that his companions at arms took to be boldness, but the more her image wallowed in the dunghill of war, the more the war resembled Amaranta. That was how he suffered in exile, looking for a way of killing her with his own death." One Hundred Years of Solitude
*****


Two from the same novel, Life is Elsewhere, by Milan Kudnera:

"He continued to leaf through the artist's book endlessly reciting the poem of Eluard, letting himself be carried away by the enchanted lines: [I]in the stillness of her body a tiny snowball the color of an eye, or the far-away sea that washes your eyes, or sadness inscribed in eyes that I love. Eluard had become the poet of Magda's calm body and of her eyes bathed by a sea of tears. He saw his enitre life locked in the spell of a single line: sorrow-lovely face. Yes, that was Magda: sorrow-lovely face."


"He would answer that he loved her the way a boxer loves a butterfly, the way a singer loves silence, the way an outlaw loves a village maiden. He would say that he loved her as a butcher loves the timid eyes of a calf or was lightning loves the quietly idyllic roof. He told her he adored her because she was an exciting woman rescued from a dull world."


******
"All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other's soul and flesh; but there we were, unable even to mate as slum children would have so easily found an opportunity to do so." Lolita

[Raven Falcon.]

The Great Gatsby is perhaps the most polished prose writing, at least among the pieces that I've had the pleasure of reading.

[KCurtis]

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe, "Annabel Lee" (last two stanzas)

Oh this is wonderful, isn't it? I love Poe!

[KCurtis]

The Great Gatsby is perhaps the most polished prose writing, at least among the pieces that I've had the pleasure of reading.
Absolutely! My favorite book!!!

[KCurtis]

"I am a sick man . . . I am a wicked man. An unattractive man, I think my liver hurts."
At least he admitted it.

[KCurtis]

In my view they don't get much better than this:

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.

F. Scott-Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby.

Thankyou Emil, we are on the same page.

[ralfyman]

Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress", Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning", Shakespeare's Sonnet XVIII, and the first paragraph of Nabokov's Lolita.

[marcolfo]

“Era inevitable: el olor de las almendras amargas le recordaba siempre el destino de los amores contrariados."

“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”

gabriel garcia marquez

[Maveth]

"It is told in the Lay of Leithian that Beren came stumbling into Doriath grey and bowed as with many years of woe, so great had been the torment of the road. But wandering in the summer in the woods of Neldoreth he came upon Lúthien, daughter of Thingol and Melian, at a time of evening under moonrise, as she danced upon the unfading grass in the glades beside Esgalduin. Then all memory of his pain departed from him, and he fell into an enchantment; for Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the Children of Iluvatar. Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as the shadows of twilight. As the light upon the leaves of trees, as the voice of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of the world, such was her glory and her loveliness; and in her face was a shining light.

But she vanished from his sight; and he became dumb, as one that is bound under a spell, and he strayed long in the woods, wild and wary as a beast, seeking for her. In his heart he called her Tinuviel, that signifies Nightingale, daughter of twilight, in the Grey-elven tongue, for he knew no other name for her. And he saw her afar as leaves in the winds of autumn, and in winter as a star upon a hill, but a chain was upon his limbs.

There came a time near dawn on the eve of spring, and Lúthien danced upon a green hill; and suddenly she began to sing. Keen, heart-piercing was her song as the song of the lark that rises from the gates of night and pours its voice among the dying stars, seeing the sun behind the walls of the world; and the song of Lúthien released the behind the walls of the world; and the song of Lúthien released the bonds of winter, and the frozen waters spoke, and flowers sprang from the cold earth where her feet had passed.

Then the spell of silence fell from Beren, and he called to her, crying Tinuviel; and the woods echoed the name. Then she halted in wonder, and fled no more, and Beren came to her. But as she looked on him, doom fell upon her, and she loved him; yet she slipped from his arms and vanished from his sight even as the day was breaking. Then Beren lay upon the ground in a swoon, as one slain at once by bliss and grief; and he fell into a sleep as it were into an abyss of shadow, and waking he was cold as stone, and his heart barren and forsaken. And wandering in mind he groped as one that is stricken with sudden blindness, and seeks with hands to grasp the vanished light. Thus he began the payment of anguish for the fate that was laid on him; and in his fate Lúthien was caught, and being immortal she shared in his mortality, and being free received his chain; and her anguish was greater than any other of the Eldalie has known.

Beyond his hope she retuned to him where he sat in darkness, and long ago in the Hidden Kingdom she laid her hand in his. Thereafter often she came to him, and they went in secret through the woods together from spring to summer; and no others of the Children of Iluvatar have had joy so great, though the time was brief."

from the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

[Jair]

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

[Snowqueen]

I love these lines from Wuthering Heights, the most romantic I've ever read.

'You teach me now how cruel you've been - cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears: they'll blight you - they'll damn you. You loved me - then what RIGHT had you to leave me? What right - answer me - for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart - You have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. So much the worse for me that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you - oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?'