The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell (read by Tom OBedlam)

“L’Amour et Psyche, enfants“, by William Bouguereau (1825-1905) “Two Lovers“, 1906, by Marcus Stone (1840-1921) Two Lovers 1906, MY Love is of a birth as rare As ’tis, for object, strange and high ; It was begotten by Despair, Upon Impossibility. Magnanimous Despair alone Could show me so divine a thing, Where feeble hope could ne’er have flown, But vainly flapped its tinsel wing. And yet I quickly might arrive Where my extended soul is fixed ; But Fate does iron wedges drive, And always crowds itself betwixt. For Fate with jealous eye does see Two perfect loves, nor lets them close ; Their union would her ruin be, And her tyrannic power depose. And therefore her decrees of steel Us as the distant poles have placed, (Though Love’s whole world on us doth wheel), Not by themselves to be embraced, Unless the giddy heaven fall, And earth some new convulsion tear. And, us to join, the world should all Be cramp’d into a planisphere. As lines, so love’s oblique, m