Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. When someone loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, buy REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’ ‘Does it hurt? Asked the Rabbit. ‘Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?’ ‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘What is REAL?’ asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (1881-1944) So long as lives this, and this gives life to thee. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, When in eternal lines to time thou growest

Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade, Not lose possession of that fair thou owest Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,Īnd every fair from fair sometime declines,īy chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,Īnd summer’s lease hath all too short a date Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. You have to work out whether your root was so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres Looking for suggestions for civil ceremony readings? Discover to the best non-religious poems and quotes with our helpful guide, including popular favourites such as The Velveteen Rabbit and Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières