English resources/Love and Relationships/Quotes
Love and Relationships quotes, in plain words
Every big quote from the fifteen poems. Which poem, which poet, and what it means. Start with the ones marked with a dot.
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Learn these twenty first
Short. Easy to remember. Between them they cover every theme and every main character.
In silence and tears
Byron · When We Two Parted · romantic love · loss
How they split up. The poem starts and ends on these words. Nothing was said. Everything was felt.
Nothing in the world is single
Shelley · Love's Philosophy · romantic love
Everything in nature comes in pairs, he says. So why not us. It is a chat-up line in verse.
I am quite sure she felt no pain
Browning · Porphyria's Lover · control · romantic love
He has just strangled her with her own hair. He is quite sure it did not hurt. He is not someone to be quite sure about anything.
I think of thee!
Barrett Browning · Sonnet 29: I think of thee! · romantic love · distance
The first words. She cannot stop thinking about him. The thoughts grow like vines round a tree.
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing Alive enough to have strength to die
Hardy · Neutral Tones · loss
Her smile was already dead. Just alive enough to finish dying.
Too young maybe—but more's to do At harvest-time than bide and woo
Mew · The Farmer's Bride · control · romantic love
The farmer married a girl too young and had no time to be kind. He says so himself.
Like a satellite Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away
Day-Lewis · Walking Away · parents and children · growing up · loss
His son walks off after a football match. Like a satellite torn loose. A father watching.
Anchor. Kite.
Armitage · Mother, any distance · parents and children · growing up
Two words. She holds him down, he wants to fly. A tape measure between them.
I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello
Duffy · Before You Were Mine · parents and children · memory
Duffy looks at a photo of her mother before she was born. She wanted that girl, the fun one.
Half-fledged thing
Day-Lewis · Walking Away · parents and children · growing up
A bird not ready to fly. The son, seen from behind.
The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!
Mew · The Farmer's Bride · control · romantic love
The last line. He wants her and cannot have her. The words break down.
the waterlogged earth gulping for breath at our feet
Sheers · Winter Swans · romantic love · distance
A couple walk by a lake after a fight. Even the ground is struggling to breathe.
Is your life more real because you dig and sow?
Dooley · Letters from Yorkshire · distance
He digs in the garden. She sits at a screen. She asks which of them is really living.
the slow pulse of his good heart
Waterhouse · Climbing My Grandfather · parents and children
The last line. He can feel the heartbeat under him.
Every quote, in order
All 40, in the order they happen.
- Romantic love21 quotes
- Distance, memory and place2 quotes
- Parents and children17 quotes
Romantic love
In silence and tears
Byron · When We Two Parted · romantic love · loss
How they split up. The poem starts and ends on these words. Nothing was said. Everything was felt.
Half broken-hearted
Byron · When We Two Parted · romantic love · loss
Only half. He is angry as well as sad. She got over it. He did not.
They name thee before me, A knell to mine ear
Byron · When We Two Parted · loss · romantic love
Hearing her name is like a funeral bell.
Nothing in the world is single
Shelley · Love's Philosophy · romantic love
Everything in nature comes in pairs, he says. So why not us. It is a chat-up line in verse.
What is all this sweet work worth If thou kiss not me?
Shelley · Love's Philosophy · romantic love
The last line. The sun kisses the earth, the waves kiss each other. Now kiss me.
I am quite sure she felt no pain
Browning · Porphyria's Lover · control · romantic love
He has just strangled her with her own hair. He is quite sure it did not hurt. He is not someone to be quite sure about anything.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good
Browning · Porphyria's Lover · control
He kills her at the moment she is his, so she will stay his. Mine, mine.
And yet God has not said a word!
Browning · Porphyria's Lover · control
The last line. He has sat all night with her body. Nothing has happened to him. He takes that as approval.
I think of thee!
Barrett Browning · Sonnet 29: I think of thee! · romantic love · distance
The first words. She cannot stop thinking about him. The thoughts grow like vines round a tree.
my thoughts do twine and bud About thee, as wild vines, about a tree
Barrett Browning · Sonnet 29: I think of thee! · romantic love · distance
Her thoughts are wild vines climbing him. Too many. They hide the tree.
I do not think of thee—I am too near thee.
Barrett Browning · Sonnet 29: I think of thee! · romantic love
The last line. When he is here she does not need to think of him. He is too close to think about.
We stood by a pond that winter day
Hardy · Neutral Tones · loss · romantic love
The first line. A cold pond, a grey day. The end of something.
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing Alive enough to have strength to die
Hardy · Neutral Tones · loss
Her smile was already dead. Just alive enough to finish dying.
And a pond edged with grayish leaves
Hardy · Neutral Tones · loss
The last line. Years later, every lost love brings back that pond.
Too young maybe—but more's to do At harvest-time than bide and woo
Mew · The Farmer's Bride · control · romantic love
The farmer married a girl too young and had no time to be kind. He says so himself.
We chased her, flying like a hare
Mew · The Farmer's Bride · control
She ran away. They hunted her like an animal and locked her up.
The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!
Mew · The Farmer's Bride · control · romantic love
The last line. He wants her and cannot have her. The words break down.
the waterlogged earth gulping for breath at our feet
Sheers · Winter Swans · romantic love · distance
A couple walk by a lake after a fight. Even the ground is struggling to breathe.
like a pair of wings settling after flight
Sheers · Winter Swans · romantic love
The last image. Their hands find each other. Like swans' wings folding.
from di stool each night she say
Nagra · Singh Song! · romantic love · parents and children
Every night his new wife sits on the stool and asks how much the moon costs. The poem is happy, and funny about it.
vee cum down whispering stairs
Nagra · Singh Song! · romantic love
They sit together and look at the moon over the shop. Love in a corner shop after hours.
Distance, memory and place
Is your life more real because you dig and sow?
Dooley · Letters from Yorkshire · distance
He digs in the garden. She sits at a screen. She asks which of them is really living.
our souls tap out messages across the icy miles
Dooley · Letters from Yorkshire · distance · romantic love
Two people far apart, sending small messages. Not love. Not not love.
Parents and children
Like a satellite Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away
Day-Lewis · Walking Away · parents and children · growing up · loss
His son walks off after a football match. Like a satellite torn loose. A father watching.
Half-fledged thing
Day-Lewis · Walking Away · parents and children · growing up
A bird not ready to fly. The son, seen from behind.
love is proved in the letting go
Day-Lewis · Walking Away · parents and children · growing up
The last line. Real love is letting them leave.
They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock
Causley · Eden Rock · parents and children · memory · loss
His dead parents at a picnic, young again. He is old. They wait across a stream.
I had not thought that it would be like this
Causley · Eden Rock · loss · memory
The last line, on its own. Death, or memory, is not what he expected.
My father worked with a horse-plough
Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up
The first line. The boy watches his father plough. He wants to be him.
I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake
Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up
The boy trips along behind his father's big boots.
But today It is my father who keeps stumbling Behind me, and will not go away
Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up · loss
Now the father is old and the son cannot shake him off. The roles have swapped.
Anchor. Kite.
Armitage · Mother, any distance · parents and children · growing up
Two words. She holds him down, he wants to fly. A tape measure between them.
the last one-hundredth of an inch
Armitage · Mother, any distance · parents and children · growing up
They measure a room together. The tape runs out. He is about to leave.
to fall or fly
Armitage · Mother, any distance · parents and children · growing up
The last words. He reaches for the sky and does not know which it will be.
I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello
Duffy · Before You Were Mine · parents and children · memory
Duffy looks at a photo of her mother before she was born. She wanted that girl, the fun one.
The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?
Duffy · Before You Were Mine · parents and children · memory
The ten years before the baby arrived were the mother's best. Duffy knows it. She was the yell.
stamping stars from the wrong pavement
Duffy · Before You Were Mine · parents and children · memory
Her mother dancing, sparks from her heels, in the wrong place for a good girl.
I decide to do it free, without a rope or net
Waterhouse · Climbing My Grandfather · parents and children · growing up
A child climbs his grandfather like a mountain, from the shoes up.
gasping for breath I can only lie watching clouds and birds circle
Waterhouse · Climbing My Grandfather · parents and children
At the top, on the old man's head, he lies down and looks at the sky.
the slow pulse of his good heart
Waterhouse · Climbing My Grandfather · parents and children
The last line. He can feel the heartbeat under him.
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