love & sonnet 18

LOVE - so much as been written about it...it's what is in the air, it makes the world go 'round, it's patient and it's kind, and sometimes it is a battlefield. There are so many types of love. I recently learned that ancient Greek had a least 5 words for 5 different types of love - philia (brotherly love & love of the mind), eros (passionate love), agape (pure love & also the modern Greek word for love), storge (affection - like that of parents towards children), xenia (hospitality, which was highly revered in ancient Greek culture).

On this 14th of February, to me, only the Bard of Avon's Sonnet 18 can give love for another the justice it deserves.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date,

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

As Shakespeare writes, as long as we can read this beautiful written song his love for this unknown person lives on. What a gift! What this means to me and I like to think, for all of us - tell those whom we love that we love them, and put in it writing! We don't have to possess bard-like talent to let our love for our loved ones live for "as long as men can breathe". Happy Valentine's Day to all, wishing you much love and happiness.  Xoxo.