Introduction xiii Bible Readings Genesis 1.26-28, 31 3 Genesis 2.18-24 4 Genesis 24.48-51, 58-67 5 Ruth 1.16-18 7 Psalm 67 8 Psalm 121 9 Psalm 128 10 Psalm 150 11 Song of Solomon 2.8-12; 8.6-7 12 Jeremiah 31.31-34 14 Tobit 7.9-10, 11-14 15 Tobit 8.5-7 16 Matthew 5.1-12 17 Matthew 5.13-16 18 Matthew 19.3-6 19 Romans 8.35, 37-39 20 Romans 12.1-2, 9-18 21 1Corinthians 13.1-13 22 Philippians 4.4-9 23 Colossians 3.12-15 24 1John 3.18-24 25 1John 4.7-12 26 Poems and Reflections Now You Will Feel No Rain Apache song Carry Her Over the Water W. H. Auden O Tell Me the Truth About Love W. H. Auden From Poetry and Marriage Wendell Berry To My Dear and Loving Husband Ann Bradstreet Sonnet No. 19 Bertolt Brecht How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways Elizabeth Barrett Browning Late Fragment Raymond Carver Che Fece... Il Gran Rifiuto C. P. Cavafy Patagonia Kate Clanchy After the Lunch Wendy Cope From The Prophet (2) Khalil Gibran The Keyboard and the Mouse Sophie Hannah Friendship Elizabeth Jennings Tell Me Elizabeth Jennings Husband to Wife: Party Going Brian Jones Benediction Stanley Kunitz A Lovely Song for Jackson V. R. Lang The Owl and the Pussy Cat Edward Lear Touching Your Face Tom Leonard Sundaysong Liz Lochhead To a Friend Amy Lowell From Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez Accidents of Birth William Meredith The Call Charlotte Mew From Now We Are Six A. A. Milne The Confirmation Edwin Muir From The Book and the Brotherhood Iris Murdoch I Do, I Will, I Have Ogden Nash To My Valentine Ogden Nash We Don't Need to Leave Yet, Do We? Or, Yes We Do 79 Ogden Nash From a Wedding Sermon Mark Oakley Quiet Song in Time of Chaos Eugene O'Neill It Takes Years to Marry Theodore Parker You're Sylvia Plath Sometimes Sheenagh Pugh From Everything to Lose: Diaries 1945-1960 Frances Partridge A Birthday Christina G. Rossetti I Am Completely Different Kuroda Saburo Sonnet 29 William Shakespeare Sonnet 116 William Shakespeare Love's Philosophy Percy Bysshe Shelley From A Marriage of True Minds George Spater and Ian Parsons My Wife Robert Louis Stevenson From Virginibus Puerisque Robert Louis Stevenson Not Love Perhaps A. S. J. Tessimond After Years of Listening, A Stone Comes to Life James Tipton Gift 98 R. S. Thomas Dead Still 99 Andrei Voznesensky The Mournes 100 Helen Waddell The Old Words 101 David Wagoner FromTales of Men and Ghosts 102 Edith Wharton He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven 103 W. B. Yeats Hymns All things bright and beautiful 107 O praise ye the Lord! 108 And did those feet in ancient time 110 O Jesus, I have promised 111 He who would valiant be 113 I danced in the morning 114 Immortal, invisible, God only wise 115 Come down, O Love divine 116 Tell out, my soul 117 Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us 118 Morning has broken 119 Make me a channel of your peace 120 O worship the King 121 O perfect Love, all human thought transcending 123 King of glory, King of peace 124 Let all the world in every corner sing Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart Praise, my soul, the King of heaven O Love that wilt not let me go Angel-voices ever singing God is Love: let heav'n adore him Now thank we all our God The Lord's my shepherd Lord of all hopefulness Love Divine, all loves excelling O thou who camest from above Guide me, O thou great Redeemer Dear Lord and Father of mankind