How Do I Love Thee?
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
My Love, Capn John
Love is an irresistable desire to be irresistably desired.
by Robert Frost
HISTORY OF VALENTINE'S DAY
Valentines Day started in the time of the Roman Empire.
Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved
in many bloody and unpopular military campaigns.
Claudius the Cruel, as he was known at the time,
was having a difficult time getting soldiers to
join his millitary leagues. He believed that the reason
was that Roman men did not want to leave their loves or families.
As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.
This was when a Christian priest named Valentine came to defend love in the
empire. Valentine began to secretly marry couples despite the emperors orders.
When Emperor Claudius was informed of these ceremonies Valentine was sent
to prision where he remained unitl his death on February 14 in the year 270.
It wasn't until a few hundred years later when Valentine's Day began to develop
as we know it. At the time Christianity was beginning to take control of Europe.
As part of this effort the Church sought to do away with pagan holidays.
Valentine's Day came to replace a mid-February fertility festival called
Lupercalia. In honor of his scarifice for love Valentine was made a saint and
Lupercalia renamed in his honor.
Until today the tradition of honoring Valentine continues. The themes of love and
feritlity taken from the ancient meanings of the holiday have endured and evolved
with our contemporary adaptations of its meanings.
Cupid - Eros
In Greek mythology, Eros was the god of love in all its manifestations.
According to some legends, he was one of the oldest of the gods, born from
Chaos but personifying harmony. In most stories he was the son of Aphrodite and Ares and was represented as a winged youth armed with bow and
arrows. In Roman myth, under the name Cupid or Amor, he was the naked infant son and companion of Venus.
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