This week’s poem is chosen for Matt and Kayleigh who got married on Sunday and kindly invited me along. It is by Sir Philip Sidney, a prominent Elizabethan renaissance man who is also remembered for suffering a mortal wound at the Battle of Zutphen after refusing to be better armoured than his soldiers, and for offering his water to another wounded soldier, saying “Thy necessity is yet greater than mine”. Whatever the truth of these tales, they helped to cement his reputation as a generous and gallant man.
My true love hath my heart, and I have his
Sir Philip Sidney (1554—1586)
By just exchange one for the other given:
Poem 181. My True Love Hath My Heart
My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange one for the other given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a bargain better driven.
His heart in me keeps me and him in one;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own;
I cherish his because in me it bides.
His heart his wound received from my sight;
My heart was wounded with his wounded heart;
For as from me on him his hurt did light,
So still, methought, in me his hurt did smart:
Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss,
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.
This poem tells of the love between two people, suggesting that in exchanging vows, they have exchanged their hearts so that each possesses a part of the other and is constantly guided by their consideration of the other half’s feelings (“His heart in me keeps me and him in one; my heart in him his thoughts and sense guides”).
The poem goes on to describe how the narrator’s lover was wounded (or perhaps smitten is a better word) by Cupid’s dart and in seeing his love for her, the narrator was smitten by the same love for him (“Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss”).
I like this poem because it reminds me of the strength of love that Nicola and I shared, and the language beautifully expresses the love a couple feel for each other.
I wish Matt and Kayleigh a very long and happy marriage.