Eaton Stannard Barrett

“Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy; even love unreturned has its rainbow.”

Stannard Barrett (1786 – 1820) was much better known for his satirical poems about politicians of his day than girly stuff about love but here he made the exception. One wonders if he loved himself but found it unrequited! Not much is known about him but his parody of the Gothic Novel, “The Heroine” was said by Jane Austen to have left her “much amused”. Gone, pretty much forgotten, but thank you Eaton for a lovely sentence!

Mark Twain

“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man
or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married
a quarter of a century..”

Twain (1835 – 1910) was the originator of that great American novel – “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. He was known – and enjoyed the reputation – during his life as one of the keenest wits of his day and his satirical – often sarcastic – sayings are much better known than the occasions, such as this, where he showed his softer side. Twain has often been taken off High School syllabi by those who object to his use of the term “nigger” which in no way represented what he thought of black people in our modern sense. In his defence that would be a little like banning Shakespeare because he didn’t much like the Welsh!

William Wordsworth, “Michael”

“There is a comfort in the strength of love;
‘Twill make a thing endurable, which else
Would overset the brain, or break the heart.”

Now here is someone that we usually associate with that ridiculous obsession with love! Wordsworth was one of the Romantic Poets together with Coleridge launching said literary era with their joint work “Lyrical Ballads” (1798). Normally associated with the Lake District and lots and lots of daffodils, he isn’t much liked by poetry students these days. Not that it would worry him; his form of poetry was out of favour several times during his career. He had five children with wife Mary and he looked after her for 25 years after she became an invalid. There’s love for you!

John Wesley

“Beware you be not swallowed up in books!
An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge!”

Wesley (1703 – 1791) was a pioneer of the Methodist movement. At the age of five he had been saved from a burning rectory and saw that as a pivotal moment in his life, when he became “a brand plucked from the burning”. Kind of like a metaphor for hell I guess. This said, he was a bit of a wild child at university, but saw the light when his brother formed “The Holy Club”. One may not believe it today but the word “Methodist” was used as a pejorative initially – people made fun of the methodical nature of this new kind of Christians. The name stuck. The rest is history.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both
together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul
of genius.”

Another wild child, but this one really took the business! Mozart (1756 – 1791) still managed, despite his partying to write over 600 compositions. He could play the piano by four and a year later was writing music (which is dad put down of paper, of course, he wasn’t that clever!). His violin concertos are among the most sublime. Many people think that Mozart was buried in a pauper’s grave, a belief that the film Amadeus did nothing to dispel. In fact, he was buried in a common grace which was the custom of the time in Vienna. As for being buried without any of his friends and family – true. This was not a slight in death but also the custom at the time. So there!

Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Oh tell her, brief is life but love is long!”

Tennyson (1809 – 1892) is now remembered as a bit of a war mongerer with his blood curdling poetry that exhorted valour and honour in death among the young men of the time. This was very much down to one poem of his, “The Charge of The Light Brigade” but a lot of his work is charming and romantic. Pompous, banal, moralizing and self-indulgent some of his poetry may be, but boy oh boy did he understand poetic structure and metre. “Idylls of the King” is just about the most masterful reworking of the King Arthur legend you can ever hope to read.

Christopher Marlowe, “The passionate shepherd to his love”

“Come live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasure prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields
Woods or steepy mountains yield.”

My name is Marlowe. Kit Marlowe. Despite his sometime reputation as secret agent of his day, Marlowe (1564 – 1593) was the enfant terrible of the burgeoning English theatre of the day. One wonders if his death had not been so untimely and premature whether we would remember Shakespeare as the greatest dramatist of the English language or this heretic, homosexual, brawler and spy. Who can say; so little is known of his life and so many writers have embellished it to such an extent that we cannot really say what is true and what is not. Whatever – the oft repeated quote “all they that love not Tobacco & boies are fooles,” still makes me chuckle.

Aristotle

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) may have lived an awfully long time ago but he got some things right, such as the statement above. His thoughts on Science had a huge impact on the Renaissance and some of his ideas around biology were only confirmed in the 19th century when the habit of surgeons cutting up dead bodies became (slightly more) socially acceptable. That’s quite a long time for your reputation to survive intact. Two myths about Aristotle are that he was sentenced to death. No, he died of natural causes. Secondly, that he was gay. Well, he put it in his will that he was to be buried next to his wife which, while it proves nothing…

Kahlil Gibran

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.”

Sound familiar? Well, thanks to Sting, who paraphrased these words, Gibran (1883 – 1931) is misquoted thousands of times a day. Born in the Lebanon his family settled in America when he was a child. This combination of cultures would enable him to become a poet, painter and writer. He had other stuff lifted too. F or example, “Half of What I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you.” Take a listen to the song “Julia” from the Beatles’ eponymous 1968 Album (the white one!). Tut, tut, Mr Lennon!

Harry Emerson Fosdick

“Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes
life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it.
Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love
anoints its eyes.”

Fosdick (1878 – 1969) was an American Clergy with, it must be said, a rather Welsh turn of phrase. One wonders where Henry Higgins may have placed his origins had he heard the above! A Baptist who pastured at a Presbyterian Church he was anti-racist but blamed dictatorships on democracy. Very popular during his lifetime he wrote numerous books. Perhaps his greatest modern legacy lies in a positive review of the first edition of “Alcoholics Anonymous” which gave the movement legs. Significant when it had been somewhat legless beforehand.