You think the dead we loved truly ever leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly in times of great trouble?
As said by the wise and benevolent Professor Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), the third of the series, and my favourite. You can find another example of Dumbledore’s knowledge here, and my tour of Harry Potter Studios here.
She loved me once and I threw it away
A love so pure there was plenty to spare
And yet not enough for me to keep
And not enough for me to share
Her and I loved in different ways, speeds and styles
At contrasting times and in different places
Her love for me now sat with old newspapers
Faded clothes, expired milk and long-forgotten faces
But my love for her caught in a sandtimer
With my heart waiting for the last grain to fall
Memories varying from light to dark and dark to light
And questions and questions challenging it all
Whether better to have loved and lost I’m not certain
I wanted to love you the way you did me
My love took too long to catch up with yours
And you never slowed down, more’s the pity
I will let go, I hold on with fewer fingers now
The future is coming into view more than the past
But while we’ll never be that us again
Your role in my life will last
After finding an old poem Some Things, I decided to fine tune another poem I wrote while back.
A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.
Swiss Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church Gaspard Mermillod (1824- 1892). Happy Mother’s Day!
I loved you, and I probably still do,
And for a while the feeling may remain…
But let my love no longer trouble you,
I do not wish to cause you any pain.
I loved you; and the hopelessness I knew,
The jealousy, the shyness – though in vain –
Made up a love so tender and so true
As may God grant you to be loved again.
The bittersweet poem I loved You (1830) by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, best known for his writings in the Romantic era of 1800 – 1850.
I just spent the entire flight staring into the sky thinking not about my fiancé but about this mystery guy I met a million and a half hours ago. A guy I don’t even remember except for this vague picture I have inside my head. It was just a few seconds, a fragment really. And it was like, in that moment, the whole universe just existed to bring us together. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m going to let fate take me wherever it wants me to go.
Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) in the romantic comedy Serendipity (2001), as recommended by the lovely Nicola.
Lorna: Just hang out in your room and make sure the kids don’t get out of hand
Rachel: Kids! We’re like three years older than them. Most of them probably fancied me at school
Dylan: No one fancied you at school. or in fact now.
Ben: Not true. I do. So that’s one person.
Helen Baxendale, Esther Smith, Tyger Drew-Honey and Matt Lacey in the British sitcom Cuckoo.
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.
American cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (1922 – 2000), best known for the comic strip Peanuts.
Writers, artists and musicians have been trying to express it for centuries, but in its time Hollywood has been able to sprinkle its own kind of romantic magic. See how many of the films below you get
(1930s)
(1940s)
(1940s)
(1990s)
(1990s)
(2000+)
Answers
______________________
1. Gone with the Wind (1939)
2. Brief Encounter (1945)
3. Roman Holiday (1953)
4. Ghost (1990)
5. Titanic (1997)
6. The Notebook (2004)
I really should be saying goodnight
I really shouldn’t stay any more.
It’s been so long since I held you,
I’ve forgotten what love is for.
Taken from the song ‘Trouble’ by Lindsey Buckingham off the album Law and Order (1981)
Alex Raphael 