Ain't Love Grand

Yesterday, I watched Bright Star. It's about John Keats who has been my favorite poet for a while now. Wow. I really enjoyed the movie and cried like a baby at the end. I need to see it again. I've read Keats' work, but didn't know that he died at such a young age. I didn't know about the love he had in his life. I found it fascinating. I'm going to see if I can get a book on him. Reading his poetry isn't getting it done. The movie focused the love affair he had with Fannie Brawne. In a way, it was young love...reminded me VERY much of how I acted during my first love experience. The actual feeling that you would die if you weren't near each other. Man, what a great feeling...and an awful feeling. I plunged into love when I found it. The love letters and the songs we exchanged during that time. Whenever I hear a song from that time, my heart just swims. Keats knew love. I named my last car Keats. Mostly because I identify so much with his poem, "Ode to a Grecian Urn."

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunt about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

I will agree that the best part of that first kiss is right before you actually touch each others' lips. Nothing is ever quite as beautiful as JUST before you have it. And, after that moment is gone, it's never the same. (At least that's what I get out of it) I've lived my life this way. I love change. I love "firsts" and I love to be in love.



I recommend the movie to lovers of love...because if you are in any way cynical, you won't enjoy it. It will make you laugh and be irritated at how crazy these two are about one another. It's young, yes...but man, I'd go back to that time of my life in a heartbeat. Not that I don't love my life now...but I've guarded my heart since then. Nothing was quite as sweet...or stung so much!