The timeless poetry of love

Have you ever written a love poem? Or received a love poem? I have. Poetry and love go together. Both are intense, powerful and vivid, heightening all the senses. Images of the beloved linger in the mind like the lines of well-remembered verse.

"The wild goose flies up and soars,
She sinks down upon the net.
The birds cry in flocks,
But I hasten homeward,
Since I care for your love alone."

Like love itself, poetry is old. I believe that as soon as we could speak, we composed poetry. By the time of the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt, 3000 years ago, love poetry was an accepted literary form. The man would call the woman "sister" and she call him "Brother" as expressions of intimacy. Each would speak of their longing and delight, using images of nature, trees and flowers.

"I am thy first sister. I am unto thee like a garden, which I have planted with flowers and with all manner of sweet-smelling herbs."

"Shedeh-wine it is, my hearing of thy voice, and I live because I hear it."

Reading such words, I am transported to the Nile and the young lovers, the man and woman who longed for each other and who adorned themselves with garlands and perfumes as each waited for the beloved to appear.

Truly, another magic of love.

(Pictures of a scribe and his wife and of an Egyptian blue lily from Wikimedia Commons. For more Egyptian love poems try here at the Ancient History Sourcebook.)