Complete Book of Wedding Vows (93 page)

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Authors: Diane Warner

Tags: #Family & Relationships, #Marriage, #test

BOOK: Complete Book of Wedding Vows
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Page 177
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets.
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst, Old Time; despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
Shakespearean sonnet 19
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived;
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
Shakespearean sonnet 104
 
Page 178
Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
Even those that said I could not love you dearer.
Yet then my judgement knew no reason why
My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.
But reckoning Time, whose millioned accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
Divert strong minds to th' course of alt'ring things
Alas, why, fearing of Time's tyranny,
Might I not then say 'Now I love you best,'
When I was certain o'er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
Love is a babe; then might I not say so,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow.
Shakespearean sonnet 115
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, all of which are available in a single volume at your local library. You will enjoy perusing through them, perhaps selecting a line or phrase here and there. Be sure to read Sonnets 15, 25, 76, 88 and 91, all of which offer lovely phrasings for your consideration. Who knows? They may even inspire you to wax eloquent and compose an original sonnet of your very own!
Another source of inspiration are the writings of Kahlil Gibran, including his love letters to Mary Haskell, the great love of his adult life. Here are excerpts from some of these letters that will work well for your affirmation vows:
 
Page 179
"The most wonderful thing, Mary, is that you and I are always walking together, hand in hand, in a strangely beautiful world, unknown to other people. Love says, you are myself.
"You have the great gift of understanding, beloved Mary. You are a life-giver, Mary. My knowing you is the greatest thing in my days and nights, a miracle. That which is between us is like the Absolute in Lifeeverchanging, evergrowing. You and I, Mary, understand each other's larger self: and that to me is the most wonderful thing in life.
"Mary, you are the only person in the world with whom I feel wholly at home. The bond between you and me is greater than either of us knows. Between us the bond can't be broken. May Life sing in your heart, and may Life keep you in her most sacred heart.
"I shall love you to eternity. I loved you long before we met in this flesh. I knew that when I first saw you. It was destiny...nothing can shake us apart...I can't and God himself can't.
"The relation between you and me is the most beautiful thing in my life: It is eternal. Mary, I am always asking much of you, and like life itself you always give much. May God bless you for all that you do for me...may God love you and keep you near His heart."
Kahlil Gibran

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