So I have been thinking about asking someone to read a Poe Poem at the wedding ...
A Dream within a Dream
by
Edgar Allan PoeTake this kiss upon thy brow!And, in parting from you now,Thus much let me avow—You are not wrong, to deemThat my days have been a dream;Yet if hope has flown awayIn a night, or in a day,In a vision, or in none,Is it therefore the less gone?All that we see or seemIs but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roarOf a surf-tormented shore,And I hold within my handGrains of the golden sand—How few! yet how they creepThrough my fingers to the deep,While I weep—while I weep!O God! can I not graspThem with a tighter clasp?O God! can I not saveOne from the pitiless wave?Is all that we see or seemBut a dream within a dream?
Annabel Lee
by
Edgar Allan PoeIt was many and many a year ago,In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may knowBy the name of Annabel Lee;—And this maiden she lived with no other thoughtThan to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,In this kingdom by the sea;But we loved with a love that was more than love—I and my Annabel Lee—With a love that the wingëd seraphs of HeavenCoveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,In this kingdom by the sea,A wind blew out of a cloud, chillingMy beautiful Annabel Lee;So that her high-born kinsmen cameAnd bore her away from me,To shut her up in a sepulchre,In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,Went envying her and me—Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,In this kingdom by the sea)That the wind came out of the cloud by night,Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the loveOf those who were older than we—Of many far wiser than we—And neither the angels in Heaven above,Nor the demons down under the sea,Can ever dissever my soul from the soulOf the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreamsOf the beautiful Annabel Lee;And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyesOf the beautiful Annabel Lee:—And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the sideOf my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,In her sepulchre there by the sea—In her tomb by the sounding sea.
or maybe something less depressing.
Love and Friendship
by
Emily BrontëLove is like the wild rose-briar,Friendship like the holly-tree—The holly is dark when the rose-briar bloomsBut which will bloom most constantly?
The wild-rose briar is sweet in the spring,Its summer blossoms scent the air;Yet wait till winter comes againAnd who will call the wild-briar fair?
Then scorn the silly rose-wreath nowAnd deck thee with the holly's sheen,That, when December blights thy brow,He may still leave thy garland green.
Blessing of a Lover (from Gaelic Scotland)
You are the star of each night,You are the brightness of every morningYou are the story of each guestYou are the report of every land
No evil shall befall youon hill nor bank,In field or valleyOn mountain or in glen
Neither above nor belowNeither in sea nor on shoreIn skies aboveNor in the depths
You are the kernel of my heartYou are the fact of my sunYou are the harp of my musicYou are the crown of my company.
... still thinking ... maybe somethimng more modern?
