Letters of Great Men

Ah Yes...I watched it yet again last night. I fell quickly to sleep after a long late chat with my dearest friend - But as the early hours of the morning approached, I was awakened from my dreaming again. One of the reoccurring dreams. Too late (or early) to paint so I flipped on the TV and settled into my assortment of silks and oversized pillows in the livingroom.

The wistful romantic and lover of literature had me finally searching for "the letters" after the movie was over. So I must repost a few of them here...the ones that made my heart flutter ~ made my sappy heart sigh...

"I am a prisoner here in the name of the King;they can take my life, but not the love that I feel for you.
Yes, my adorable mistress, to-night I shall see you, if I had to put my head on the block to do it.
For heaven's sake, do not speak to me in such disastrous terms as you write; you must live and be cautious; beware of Madame your mother as of your worst enemy.
What do I say?
Beware of everybody; trust no one; keep yourself in readiness, as soon as the moon is visible; I shall leave the hotel incognito, take a carriage or a chaise, we shall drive like the wind to Sheveningen; I shall take paper and ink with me; we shall write our letters.
If you love me, reassure yourself; and call all your strength and presence of mind to your aid; do not let your mother notice anything, try to have your pictures, and be assured that the menace of the greatest tortures will not prevent me to serve you.
No, nothing has the power to part me from you; our love is based upon virtue, and will last as long as our lives.
Adieu, there is nothing that I will not brave for your sake; you deserve much more than that.
Adieu, my dear heart!
Arout(Voltaire)"

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to his beloved Charlotte:

"June 17, 1784
My letters will have shown you how lovely I am. I don't dine at Court, I see few people, and take my walks alone, and at every beautiful spot I wish you were there. I can't help loving you more than is good for me; I shall feel all the happier when I see you again. I am always conscious of my nearness to you, your presence never leaves me. In you I have a measure for every woman, for everyone; in your love a measure for all that is to be. Not in the sense that the rest of the world seems obscure tome, on the contrary, your love makes it clear; I see quite clearly what men are like and what they plan, wish, do and enjoy; I don't grudge them what they have, and comparing is a secret joy to me, possessing as I do such an imperishable treasure. You in your household must feel as I often do in my affairs; we often don't notice objects simply because we don't choose to look at them, but things acquire an interest as soon as we see clearly the way they are related to each other. For we always like to join in, and the good man takes pleasure in arranging, putting in order and furthering the right and its peaceful rule. The elephant's skull is coming with me to Weimar. My rock studies are going very well. Fritz is happy and good. Without noticing it, he is taken into the world, and so without knowing it, he will become familiar with it. It is still all a game to him; yesterday I got him to read some petitions and give me summaries of them; he laughed like anything and wouldn't believe that people could be in such straits as these petitions made out.
Adieu, you whom I love a thousand times."

And then one of my favorite composers to his Immortal:

"My angel, my all, my very self - Only a few words today and at that with pencil (with yours) - Not till tomorrow will my lodgings be definitely determined upon - what a useless waste of time - Why this deep sorrow when necessity speaks - can our love endure except through sacrifices, through not demanding everything from one another; can you change the fact that you are not wholly mine, I not wholly thine - Oh God, look out into the beauties of nature and comfort your heart with that which must be - Love demands everything and that very justly - thus it is to me with you, and to your with me. But you forget so easily that I must live for me and for you; if we were wholly united you would feel the pain of it as little as I - My journey was a fearful one; I did not reach here until 4 o'clock yesterday morning. Lacking horses the post-coach chose another route, but what an awful one; at the stage before the last I was warned not to travel at night; I was made fearful of a forest, but that only made me the more eager - and I was wrong. The coach must needs break down on the wretched road, a bottomless mud road. Without such postilions as I had with me I should have remained stuck in the road. Esterhazy, traveling the usual road here, had the same fate with eight horses that I had with four - Yet I got some pleasure out of it, as I always do when I successfully overcome difficulties - Now a quick change to things internal from things external. We shall surely see each other soon; moreover, today I cannot share with you the thoughts I have had during these last few days touching my own life - If our hearts were always close together, I would have none of these. My heart is full of so many things to say to you - ah - there are moments when I feel that speech amounts to nothing at all - Cheer up - remain my true, my only treasure, my all as I am yours. The gods must send us the rest, what for us must and shall be - Your faithful LUDWIG"

And as I post these I wonder...Once I have gone the way of many artists, and my work finally becomes well known as many dead artists works are finally appreciated...Will someday the many love letters from my youth be catagorized and printed off? Oh - I hope not because I was a young fool and more caught up in frilly romance than I am here, later in life. Ah - To make my soul blush even more would be the chance that this blog and my other assorted poems were found....and my overly romantic heart in these middle years would be revealed. Why would my soul blush? Because with each passing week he wraps me around his finger more and more...entrances me with everything he unveils about himself. My muse, my friend, my lover and my inspiration.

I have let my heart be exposed here.

baisers