Romantic Selections of WEDDING CEREMONY READINGS

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dream.

For the present there is just one moon,
though every level pond gives back another.

But the bright disc shining in the black lagoon,
perceived by astrophysicist and lover,

is milliseconds old. And even that light’s
seven minutes older than its source.

And the stars we think we see on moonless nights
are long extinguished. And, of course,

this very moment, as you read this line,
is literally gone before you know it.

Forget the here-and-now. We have no time
but this device of wantonness and wit.

Make me this present then: your hand in mine,
and we’ll live out our lives in it.

Not an ounce excessive, not an inch too little,
Our easy reciprocations. You let me know
The way a boat would feel, if it could feel,
The intimate support of water.

The news you bring me has been news forever,
So that I understand what a stone would say
If only a stone could speak. Is it sad a grassblade
Can’t know how it is lovely?

It is said that you can’t know, except by hearsay
(My gossiping failing words) that you are the way
A water is that can clench its palm and crumple
A boat’s confiding timbers?

But that’s excessive, and too little. Knowing
The way a circle would describe its roundness,
We touch two selves and fed, complete and gentle,
The intimate support of being.

The way that flight would feel a bird flying
(If it could fed) is the way a space that’s in
A stone that’s in a water would know itself
If it had our way of knowing.

‘Thee, Mary, with this ring I wed,’
So, fourteen years ago, I said,
Behold another ring! ‘For what?’
To wed thee o’er again - why not?

With that first ring I married youth,
Grace, beauty, innocence, and truth;
Taste long admired, sense long revered.
And all my Molly then appeared.

If she, by merit since disclosed,
Prove twice the woman I supposed,
I plead that double merit now,
To justify a double vow.
Here then, today - with faith as sure,
With ardour as intense and pure,
As when amidst the rites divine
I took thy troth, and plighted mine -
To thee, sweet girl, my second ring,
A token, and a pledge, I bring;

With this I wed, till death us part.
Thy riper virtues to my heart;
Those virtues which, before untried,
The wife has added to the bride -
Those virtues, whose progressive claim,
Endearing wedlock’s very name,
My soul enjoys, my song approves,
For conscience’ sake as well as love’s.

For why? - They show me every hour
Honour’s high thought, affection’s power,
Discretion’s deed, sound judgment’s sentence,
And teach me all things - but repentance.

If questioning could make us wise no eyes would ever gaze in eyes;
if all our tale were told in speech no mouths would wander each to each.

Were spirits free from mortal mesh and love not bound in hearts of flesh
no aching breasts would yearn to meet and find their ecstasy complete.

For who is there that lives and knows the secret powers by which he grows?
Were knowledge all, what were our need to thrill and faint and sweetly bleed?

Then seek not, sweet, the If and Why I love you now until I die:
For I must love because I live and life in me is what you give.