Lately I've found myself delving into old English poetry. A la John Donne, Shakespeare, Lord Byron.
There's something profoundly satisfying about being able to apply such heavy, ardent language to a 21st century relationship. Not to say that true love doesn't exist anymore, but true romanticism hardly does, does it? If my boyfriend were to spontaneously text me a verse, say, from Donne's "Stay, O Sweet", I might just faint with pleasure.
But who thinks like that anymore? Who would text someone lines quoted from a 17th century poet? Well. I do. I would. To people like my boyfriend, whose idea of a romantic text is a modified Owl City lyric - "If my heart was a house, you'd be my furnace." - which, don't get me wrong, made me beam, the aforementioned mentality is simply eccentric.
But what are personality quirks if not eccentricities? A personality quirk of mine is that I'm traditionally romantic. A personality quirk of my boyfriend's is that he sings aloud, off-key, and makes up parodies. So, if he can amble around the house after a shower, singing (poorly, of course) "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus, and I can find it endearing, can't I text him poetry that he'd find equally endearing?
Stay, O sweet, and do not rise!
The light that shines comes from thine eyes;
The day breaks not: it is my heart,
Because that you and I must part.
Stay! or else my joys will die,
And perish in their infancy.
- John Donne
It all depends on how you define romanticism, in my opinion. To me some of the best romanticism is best left unspoken and unwritten. :)
ReplyDeleteI've never thought about things that way. Now that you mention it, though, that just seems like his style of romanticism. Lots of meaningful looks, that sort of thing. I'm pretty into unspoken/unwritten romance as well, but I tend to transcribe and/or illustrate my feelings.
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