Katherine of Aragon : Letter to her Daughter Mary - 1574

"Daughter, 

I heard such tidings today that I do perceive (if it be true) the time is very near when Almighty God will prove you; and I am very glad of it for I doth trust he doth handle you with a good love. I beseech you, agree of His pleasure with a merry heart; and be sure that, without fail, He will not suffer you to perish if you beware to offend Him. I pray you, good daughter, to offer yourself to Him....... And if this lady [Shelton] do come to you as is spoken, if she do bring you a letter from the King, I am sure in the self same letter you shall be commanded what you shall do. Answer with few words, obeying the King, your father, in everything, save only that you will not offend God and lose your own soul; and go no further with learning and disputation in the matter. And wheresoever, and in whatsoever, company you shall come, observe the King's commandments.

But one thing I especially desire you, for the love that you do owe unto God and unto me, to keep your heart with a chaste mind, and your body from all ill and wanton company [not] thinking or desiring any husband for Christ's passion; neither determine yourself to any manner of living till this troublesome time be past. For I dare make sure that you shall see a very good end, and better than you can desire....... And now you shall begin, and by likelihood I shall follow. I set not a rush by it; for when they have done the uttermost they can, then I am sure of the amendment....... we never come to the kingdom of Heaven but by troubles. Daughter wheresoever you come, take no pain to send unto me, for if I may, I will send to you,

Your loving mother,

Katherine the Queen"

The Freelance History Writer  January 12, 2018

Susan Abernethy

...

 

Image (before edit): WIKIPEDIA

Thomas Carew (1595 - 1640) : "A Song : Ask me no more"

 

Ask me no more where Jove bestows,

When June is past, the fading rose;

For in your beauty's orient deep

These flowers as in their causes, sleep.

Ask me no more whither doth stray

The golden atoms of the day;

For in pure love heaven did prepare

Those powders to enrich your hair.

Ask me no more whither doth haste

The nightingale when May is past;

For in your sweet dividing throat

She winters and keeps warm her note.

Ask me no more where those stars light

That downwards fall in dead of night;

For in your eyes they sit, and there,

Fixed become as in their sphere.

Ask me no more if east or west

The phoenix builds her spicy nest;

For unto you at last she flies,

And in your fragrant bosom dies.

The Poetry Foundation

 

Kenneth Koch (1925 - 2002) : "In Love with You"

                              

                                  I

 

O what a physical effect it has on me

To dive forever into the light blue sea

Of your acquaintance !  Ah, but dearest friends,

Like forms, are finished, as life has ends !  Still,

It is beautiful, when October

Is over, and February is over,

To sit in the starch of my shirt, and to dream of your sweet

Ways !   As if the world were a taxi, you enter it, then

Reply (to no one), "Let's go five or six blocks."

Isn't the blue stream that runs past you a translation from the Russian ?

Aren't my eyes bigger than love ?

Isn't this history, and aren't we a couple of ruins ?

Is Carthage Pompeii ? is the pillow the bed ?  is the sun

What glues our heads together ?  O midnight !  O midnight !

Is love what we are,

Or has happiness come to me in a private car

That's so very small I'm amazed to see it there?

The Poetry Foundation - In Love with You

Clifton Gachagua (b. 1987) : "A Bronze God, or a Letter on Demand"

 

I like to think of your silence as the love letters you will not write me,

as two sax solos from two ages across a stage, learning the languages

of kissing with your eyes closed. I like to think of you as a god

to whom I no longer pray, as a god I aspire to. I like the opening of your joined palms,

which is like an urn where my ashes find a home. The music of your lashes;

the silent way your body wears out mine.

Mostly, I like to think of you at night when a black screen of shining dust shines

from your mines to the edge of my skin, where you are a lamp of flutters.

I remember the spectral lashes-marigold, tamarind, secret thing between your thighs,

of closed kissing eyes. At night, the possibility of you is a heavy

sculpture of heavy bronze at the side of my bed,

a god. And I pray you into life. Into flesh. 

Poem of the Day, posted by The Poetry Foundation on August 24, 2014

Shakespeare : " Sonnet CXXX"

 

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Open Source Sonnets

Huggie Time