Love Poems Leaflet

Love Poems on the Underground Leaflet.

A celebration of Love on the Underground from Sappho and Shakespeare to the 21st Century. First published by Poems on the Underground in 2019 and distributed free at London Underground stations.

You can see our Love Poems leaflet here and see the Posters in their original poster form below

Two Fragments by Sappho translated by Cicely Herbert

Two Fragments, Sappho (7th Century B.C.) translated by Cicely Herbert Poems on the Underground 1992 ' As a gale on the mountainside bends the oak tree I am rocked by my love. Love holds me captive again and I tremble with bittersweet longing.''

Longings by C.P. Cavafy translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

Longings by C.P. Cavafy ( 1863-1933) Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard 'Like the beautiful bodies of those who died before growing old, sadly shut away in sumptuous mausoleum, roses by the head, jasmine at the feet - so appear the longings that have passed without being satisfied, not one of the granted a single night of pleasure, or one of its radiant mornings.'

Naima for John Coltrane by Kamau Brathwaite

Naima for John Coltrane, Kamau Brathwaite 'Propped against the crowded bar he pours into the curved and silver horn his own unhappy longing for a home'

Western Wind when wilt thou blow Anon

Western Wind, Anon, ' Western wind when wilt thou blow the small rain down can rain Christ If my love were in my arms and I in my bed again'

Love without Hope by Robert Graves

Love Without Hope, Robert Graves 'Love without hope, as when the young bird-catcher Swept off his tall hat to the Squire's own daughter, So let the imprisoned larks escape and fly Singing about her head, as she rode by.'

Her Anxiety by W.B. Yeats

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare 1998 Poster Poems on the Underground ' Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments; love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove'

Hour by Carol Ann Duffy

Hour, Carol Ann Duffy ‘Love’s time’s beggar, but even a single hour, bright as a dropped coin, makes love rich. We find an hour together, spend it not on flowers or wine, but the whole of the summer sky and a grass ditch.’

The Good Morrow by John Donne

The Good Morrow by John Donne (1572-1631) ' 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 others, worlds on worlds have shown, Let us possess our world; each hath one, and is one. My face in thine eyes, 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. ' Poems on the Underground The British Council. The British Library (Zweig Programme). Designed by Tom Davidson

Separation by W.S. Merwin

Separation, W.S. Merwin ' Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its colour.'

Music When Soft Voices Die by Percy Bysshe Shelley

To- P.B. Shelley 'Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory – Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved’s bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.'

Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson

The Rescue by Seamus Heaney

The Rescue by Seamus Heaney (b.1939) ' In drifts of sleep I came upon you Buried to your waist in snow. You reached your arms out : I came to Like water in a dream of thaw.'

Meeting at Night by Robert Browning

Hops by Boris Pasternak translated by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France

Content by Kate Clancy

Content by Kate Clanchy 'Like walking in fog, in fog and mud, do you remember, love? We kept ,for once, to the tourist path, boxed in mist, conscious of just our feet and breath, and at the peak, sat hand in hand, and let the cliffs we'd climbed and cliffs to come reveal themselves and be veiled again quietly, with the prevailing wind.'

The Present by Michael Donaghy

The Present by Michael Donaghy Poems on the Underground 2001 ' For the present there is just one moon, though every level pond gives back another .But the bright disc shining in the black lagoon, perceived by astrophysicist and lover ,is milliseconds old. And even that light's seven minutes older than its source. And the stars we think we see on moonless nights are long extinguished. And, of course, this very moment, as you read this line, is literally gone before you know it. Forget the here-and-now. We have no time but this device of wantonness and wit. Make me this present then: your hand in mine, and we'll live out our lives in it.'

India by Jane Draycott

India, Jane Draycott ' At the gates of the fabulous city of gold out of the blue he told her the truth and the whole world tipped, was dipped in sudden indigo like a late-running messenger or working beyond dark in the fields.'

The Maidens’ Song Anon Elizabethan Bridal Song

The Maydens Came Anon 16th Century ' When I was in my mother's bower I had all that I would The bailey beareth the bell away The lily, the rose, the rose I lay The silver is white, red is the gold The robes they lay in fold The bailey beareth the bell away The lily, the rose, the rose I lay. And through the glass window shines the sun How should I love, and I so young? The bailey beareth the bell away The lily, the rose, the rose I lay The bailey beareth the bell away'

John Anderson My Jo by Robert Burns

Love Poems
on the Underground
What is love? ’Tis not hereafter;
Present love hath present laughter;
What’s to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty;
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE