ROMEO
Let me stand here till thou remember it.
JULIET
I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,
Remembering how I love thy company.
ROMEO
And I’ll still stay, to have thee still forget,
Forgetting any other home but this.
JULIET
'Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone.
And yet no further than a wanton’s bird,
That lets it hop a little from his hand
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silken thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.
ROMEO
I would I were thy bird.
JULIET
Sweet, so would I.
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
ROMEO
Let me stand here until you remember your reason.
JULIET
I’ll forget it, and you’ll have to stand there forever. I’ll
only remember how much I love your company.
ROMEO
I’ll keep standing here, even if you keep forgetting. I’ll
forget that I have any home besides this spot right
here.
JULIET
It’s almost morning. I want to make you go, but I’d
only let you go as far as a spoiled child lets his pet
bird go. He lets the bird hop a little from his hand and
then yanks him back by a string.
ROMEO
I wish I was your bird.
JULIET
My sweet, so do I. But I would kill you by petting you
too much. Good night, good night. Parting is such
sweet sorrow that I’ll say good night until tonight
becomes tomorrow.
I want a love like me, thinking of you, thinking of me, thinking of you type love or, me telling my friends more than I've ever
admitted to myself about how I feel about you type love or, hating how jealous you are, but loving how much you want me
all to yourself type love, or seeing how your first name just sounds so good next to my last name, and, I wanted to see how
far I could get without calling you, and I barely made it out of my garage. I want a love that makes me need to change my
cell phone calling plan to something that allows me to talk to her longer because in all honesty, I want to avoid one of them
high cell phone bill type loves.

See, I want a love that makes me wait until she falls asleep then wonder if she dreaming about us being in love type love,
or who loves the other more, or what she's doing at this exact moment, or slow dancing in the middle of our apartment to
the music of our hearts, closing my eyes and imagining how a love so good could just hurt so much when she's not there. I
love not knowing where this love is headed type love. And check this, I want to place those little post-it notes all around the
house so she never forgets how much I love her type love. Then not have enough ink in my pen to write all there is to love
about her type love. I hope that I make her feel as good as she makes me feel, like believing that her being in my life
makes me a better person type love, or I want her to distract me from whatever I'm doing type love, and I want to deal with
my friends making fun of me the way I made fun of them when they went through the same kind of love type love.

I want to try counting the ways I love her, and then lose count in the middle just so that I have to start all over again type
love. I want to celebrate one of those month anniversaries even though they are not really anniversaries, but doing it just
because it makes her happy type love. And I want to break down the time we spend together into seconds just so it sounds
like we spend more time together type love. And check this, I want to fall in love with the melody the phone plays when her
number is dialed into it type loves and then talk to her until I lose my breath, she leaves me breathless, but with the
expanding of my lungs I inhale all of her back into me. I want a love that makes me st-st-st-st-stutter just thinking about how
strong this love is type love. And check this, I kind of feel comfortable now, so I can tell you this: I am fantasizing about
walking out on a green light, just dying to get hit by a car just so I could lose my memory, get transported to some third
world country, just to get treated, then somehow meet up again with you so that I could fall in love with you in a different
language to see if it still feels the same.

Shihan
JULIET
Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face,
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.
Fain would I dwell on form. Fain, fain deny
What I have spoke. But farewell compliment!
Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say “ay,”
And I will take thy word. Yet if thou swear’st
Thou mayst prove false. At lovers' perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.
Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won,
I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay,
So thou wilt woo. But else, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,
And therefore thou mayst think my 'havior light.
But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true
Than those that have more coying to be strange.
I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou overheard’st, ere I was 'ware,
My true love’s passion. Therefore pardon me,
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath so discovered.
JULIET
You can’t see my face because it’s dark out.
Otherwise, you’d see me blushing about the
things you’ve heard me say tonight. I would be
happy to keep up good manners and deny the
things I said. But forget about good manners. Do
you love me? I know you’ll say “yes,” and I’ll
believe you. But if you swear you love me, you
might turn out to be lying. They say Jove laughs
when lovers lie to each other. Oh Romeo, if you
really love me, say it truly. Or if you think it’s too
easy and quick to win my heart, I’ll frown and
play hard-to-get, as long as that will make you try
to win me, but otherwise I wouldn’t act that way
for anything. In truth, handsome Montague, I like
you too much, so you may think my behavior is
loose. But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove myself
more faithful than girls who act coy and play
hard-to-get. I should have been more standoffish,
I confess, but you overheard me talking about the
love in my heart when I didn’t know you were
there. So excuse me, and do not assume that
because you made me love you so easily my love
isn’t serious.
Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf:
"I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter
to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I
just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. You, with all your
undumb letters, would never write so elementary a phrase as that;
perhaps you wouldn't even feel it. And yet I believe you'll be sensible of a
little gap. But you'd clothe it in so exquisite a phrase that it would lose a
little of its reality. Whereas with me it is quite stark: I miss you even more
than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal.
So this letter is just really a squeal of pain. It is incredible how essential to
me you have become. ... Damn you, spoilt creature; I shan't make you
love me any the more by giving myself away like this — but oh my dear, I
can't be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. You
have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I don't love. I have
brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defenses. And I
don't really resent it."
JULIET
Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,
I have no joy of this contract tonight.
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say “It lightens.” Sweet, good night.
This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Good night, good night! As sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart as that within my breast.
JULIET
Well, don’t swear. Although you bring me joy, I
can’t take joy in this exchange of promises
tonight. It’s too crazy. We haven’t done enough
thinking. It’s too sudden. It’s too much like
lightning, which flashes and then disappears
before you can say, “it’s lightning.” My sweet,
good night. Our love, which right now is like a
flower bud in the summer air, may turn out to be
a beautiful flower by the next time we meet. I
hope you enjoy the same sweet peace and rest
I feel in my heart.
Sonnet of the Sweet Complaint
by Federico Garcia Lorca
Never let me lose the marvel
of your statue-like eyes, or the accent
the solitary rose of your breath
places on my cheek at night.
I am afraid of being, on this shore,
a branchless trunk, and what I most regret
is having no flower, pulp, or clay
for the worm of my despair.
If you are my hidden treasure,
if you are my cross, my dampened pain,
if I am a dog, and you alone my master,
never let me lose what I have gained,
and adorn the branches of your river
with leaves of my estranged Autumn
Lovely One
by Pablo Neruda
Lovely one,
just as on the cool stone
of the spring, the water
opens a wide flash of foam, Lovely one,
so is the smile of your face, with a nest of copper entangled
lovely one. on your head, a nest
the color of dark honey
Lovely one, where my heart burns and rests,
with delicate hands and slender feet lovely one.
like a silver pony,
walking, flower of the world, Lovely one,
thus I see you, your eyes are too big for your face,
lovely one. your eyes are too big for the earth.

There are countries, there are rivers,

in your eyes,
my country is your eyes,
I walk through them,
they light the world
through which I walk,
lovely one.
The Common Lover's Song
By Flavien Ranaivo

Do not love me, cousin,

like a shadow
for shadows vanish with the evening
and I would keep you with me
all night long;
or like pepper
which makes the belly hot
for then I couldn't
satisfy my hunger;
or like a pillow
or like sweet words
for then we'd be together
for they evaporate;
while we're sleeping
or like honey
but hardly see each other
sweet enough but all too common.
once it's day;
Love me like a lovely dream,
or like rice
your life at night,
for once swallowed
my hope by day;
you think no more of it;
like the silver coin
I keep close on earth
and on the great voyage,
a faithful companion;
like a calabash,
intact, for drawing water
in pieces, bridges for my lute.