#romantic poetry

[definegodliness]

If not for you

If not for you my heart would beat Without a song; its voice discreet In matters of its own regard, And all its dreams I'd still discard As muscle spasms of mere meat.

I would have never known defeat; Obliviously incomplete, And, therein, blissfully unmarred, If not for you.

I'd never know how souls retreat Whereto we fled, and where we'll meet Again, if skies are lucky-starred; I could not roam hope's bitter ward When I would never miss its sweet If not for you.

--- Rondeau 23-9-2024, M.A. Tempels ©

[victusinveritas]

[silveredstarlights]

It's beautiful, isn't it, what music can do. How it can make you feel, what it lets you remember, how someone's music is a window into their soul.

[silverystardustt]

"you are different."

...How so?

"Look at everyone else. They are merely words while you are poetry."

-Timothy Joshua

[burningvelvet]

being a romantic era poet: a quick how-to guide

walk around in nature contemplating Things. start hiking, swimming, sailing, rowing, shooting, riding, etc. for inspiration

be obsessed with the french revolution and related enlightenment-era figures like rousseau, voltaire, mary wollstonecraft, and madame de staël. be more disappointed by napoleon bonaparte than you are by your own father. 

speaking of fathers, your parents and most of your other relatives are all either dying or dead or emotionally abusive. if you have any siblings (full, half, step, or adopted) who DIDN'T die tragically already, then you may choose to be close to them. you also may end up being much TOO close to them. various circumstances may also ban you from seeing them. 

be at least slightly touched by madness and/or some other severe illness(es) including but not limited to: consumption, horrors, syphilis, deformities, lameness, terrors, piles, boils, pox, allergies, coughing, sleep abnormalities, gonorrhea, etc. — for which you must take frequent bed rest and copious amounts of Laudanum (opium derivation)

consider foregoing meat and adopting a vegetable diet instead to purify the spirits. you may also abstain from alcohol for the same reasons. alternatively, you may attempt the veggie diet, end up rejecting it, and becoming a rampant alcoholic instead. in romanticism there is no healthy medium between abstinence and excess.

reject, or at least heavily criticize, christianity. refuse to get married in a church and consider becoming a fervent champion of atheism. alternatively, you may embrace catholicism, but only on an aesthetic basis. eastern religions and minority religions are also acceptable, only because they piss off the christians. 

if you’re not a self-hating member of the aristocracy and instead have to work for a living, do something that allows you to benefit society, be creative, and/or contemplate life. viable options include, but are not limited to: apothecarist, doctor, teacher, preacher, lawyer, farmer, printmaker, publisher, editor. there is also the possibility of earning a few coins from your art. if you were cursed to be born a She, no worries. we believe in equality. you may choose from these occupations: wife, nanny, housekeeper, spinster, amanuensis (copy writer for a man), lady’s companion, divorced wife, singer/actress/escort, widow, regular escort, tutor, or housewife. 

speaking of sexist institutions, try rejecting marriage entirely. Declare your eternal devotion to your lover by having sex with them on your mother’s grave instead.

if you do get married — elope, and only let it be for necessary financial reasons, or to try and save a teenage girl from her controlling family, or out of true love with someone you view as your intellectual equal, or because your life is so racked with scandals and debt that you can only clear your name by matrimony to a wealthy religious woman as your last resort before fleeing the country.

After marriage, quickly assert your belief in the powers of free love and bisexuality by taking extramarital lovers and suggesting your spouse follow suit. If they cannot keep up with your intellectual escapades then consider leaving them. Later on, propose a platonic friendship with them following the separation, or beg them for reconciliation.

If your marriage is happy, try moving in with another bohemian couple to shake things up. Alternatively, you may die before the wedding for dramatic effect.

If you beget children (whether in or out of marriage, makes no matter), do society a favor by choosing to raise them with your beliefs. Consider adopting orphan children, or even non-orphan children. If their parents are poor enough they probably won’t mind. Try kidnapp— I mean adopting — children off the side of the road if you can. 

DIE but do it creatively. ideally young. ideas: prophecy your own death, lead an army into war and then die right before your first battle and on your deathbed curse everyone and demand to see a witch, write a will leaving money to your mistresses or some random young man you have an unrequited romantic obsession with, carry a copy of your dead friend's poetry and read it right before you drown so that your washed up corpse can only be identified by his book in your pocket, die while staring at your lover's shriveled up heart that you keep wrapped up in a copy of his own poetry and then be buried with it, die of the poet's illness (consumption) while your artist friend draws you and then be buried with your lover's writing, get mysteriously poisoned (by yourself) after a series of scandals and accidents and then have your family announce that you were killed by god, die from romanticizing poverty or receiving bad reviews from literary critics, die from walking or horseback riding in the cold and the rain while poeticizing, etc.

[the-dose-makes-the-poison]

@jmstormquotes via Instagram

[metanein]

I wish I had more time to look at you, talk with you, embrace you.

[embeccy]

"I don’t think there’s anything sadder than when two people are meant to be together and something intervenes."

- Walter Bishop

[heartofmuse]

I wait and while I do, I paint you faithfully in the canvas of my soul, with all the colors and hues that you made me recognize as yours. Faith in your love makes my heart hum, my lips smile as I surrender to every shade.

e.v.e.

[coffeebirbsdarkacademia]

It's March. I open the window and spring floats in, kisses me on the nose. I have waited so long- and now the Sun is washing the world in yellow, and now the seeds sprout green in the dirt, and now the trees are budding and ready to bloom- and it was all so worth it

Schuyler Peck, Worth the Wait

[definegodliness]

[bymarahh]

🩷 @bymarahh

[silveredstarlights]

I know you so well I have a voice in my head that sounds exactly like you, talks like you, thinks like you, feels like you.

[alifethatilove]

John Keats love letter to Fanny Brawne oct 13, 1819

[kaleb-is-definitely-sane]

Yes we are in love. It is a place that we live in. We reside in love like it’s a forest; an enchanted wood and we are it’s deer and stags, leaping over walls and eating it’s fruit.

[inbetweenimperfectmusings]

I am here,

For you,

With you,

Beside you,

Behind you,

Wherever you need me,

I will be here,

Always.