Amoretti "My Love is like to ice, and I to fire" by Edmund Spenser (poetry reading)

Edmund observes that love contradicts the First Law of Thermodynamics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics

What follows is not mine - it's a translation of Alfred Adler:

Love, with its fulfilment, marriage, is the most intimate to devotion toward a partner of the other sex, expressed in physical attraction, in comradeship, and in the decision to have children. It can easily be shown that love and marriage are one side of cooperation -- not a cooperation for the welfare of two persons only, but a corporation also for the welfare of humanity

The fundamental guarantee of marriage is the feeling that you are worthwhile, that you cannot be replaced, that your partner needs you, that you are acting well, you are a fellow human being and a true friend, but comrades must be equal, for when people are equal they will always find a way to settle their difficulties.

To be faithful and true and trustworthy, not to be reserved, not to be self-seeking. It is not even possible to carry through a true comradeship if both partners have agreed to pursue their freedom.

The right solution to the problem of love and marriage belongs to the highest fulfilment of the whole personality. There is no problem more closely involved with happiness and a true and useful expression of life.

Most marital problems occur when one person feels either "less than" or "greater than" their spouse. When one person acts as though they deserve to dominate, the person of lesser status inevitably resorts to either open rebellion or subtle sabotage.

We only regard those unions as real examples of love and real marriages in which a fixed and unalterable decision has been taken. If men or women contemplate an escape, they do not collect all their powers for the task. We cannot love and be limited.

Most lovers conduct themselves as if each were afraid that the other one could see them as the weaker.

Paintings:
The Persistent Suitor, by Andreotti Federico
Two Lovers, by Marcus Stone
Ask Me No More, by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

My Love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?

What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congeal'd with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?

Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Amoretti
• Edmund
• Spenser

[agrlfmtx]

Adler's description of love....Well said. I see daily the repercussions' of self seeking individuals. It breaks my heart. Thank you for sending it. T:)

[longhairred]

Beautifully read...

I know, know... can't help but digress. Google "Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer with a proof." It never was a question on a thermodynamics exam... but it makes for a good story and I think you will enjoy the chuckle.

[caesarshogun]

I have a request: If ever you would wish, could you read Mervyn Peake's "Linger with me know, thou beauty". You could probably find it posted on the internet.

[MrMdferguson]

I love SpokenVerse and the real sound of poetry through the ages , and not the diary tripe poetry that I hear read on PBS, KPFA and the rest of ego writing journals of today's poets.

[paulpellicci]

This poem reminds me of my youth, when a kiss from a girl automatically meant she wanted sex even though she said she didn't and wanted to go home.

[red64419]

Good evening, thank you for this video: I always enjoy your poetry reading...I like the rough way your voice gives life to verses. This time I like the video too... because of the presence of paintings... please forgive my English, I hope not to have been involontary rude.

[justdi123]

" When one person acts as though they deserve to dominate or call the shots, the person of lesser status inevitably resorts to either open rebellion or subtle sabotage".

Yes,that's so very true-and he'll be getting exactly what he deserves :)

Sorry,im having one of those days again-lol,your poem's are really hitting a nerve with me.Your poem's tend to be alot about the woman cheating,but sometime's it's the other way round-Women get burnt too ;)