Love Poems
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Illustration
A series of illustrations for love poems selected and edited by Imtiaz Dharker. My entry for the 2020 Book Illustration Competition by the Folio Society and the House of Illustration. The selected poems are; The Good Morrow by John Donne, Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson, and The Trick by Imtiaz Dharker.
The Good Morrow
By John Donne
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I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
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Wild Nights
By Emily Dickinson
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Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds
To a heart in port
Done with the compass
Done with the chart!
To a heart in port
Done with the compass
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight
In thee!
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight
In thee!
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The Trick
By Imtiaz Dharker
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In a wasted time, it’s only when I sleep
that all my senses come awake. In the wake
of you, let day not break. Let me keep
the scent, the weight, the bright of you, take
the countless hours and count them all night through
till that time comes when you come to the door
of dreams, carrying oranges that cast a glow
up into your face. Greedy for more
than the gift of seeing you, I lean in to taste
the colour, kiss it off your offered mouth.
For this, for this, I fall asleep in haste,
willing to fall for the trick that tells the truth
that even your shade makes darkest absence bright,
that shadows live wherever there is light.
that all my senses come awake. In the wake
of you, let day not break. Let me keep
the scent, the weight, the bright of you, take
the countless hours and count them all night through
till that time comes when you come to the door
of dreams, carrying oranges that cast a glow
up into your face. Greedy for more
than the gift of seeing you, I lean in to taste
the colour, kiss it off your offered mouth.
For this, for this, I fall asleep in haste,
willing to fall for the trick that tells the truth
that even your shade makes darkest absence bright,
that shadows live wherever there is light.
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Thanks for Watching
