title: French Love Poems
author:  New Directions 
description: Bring glory to the love-drunk folks at home!<br /> - <strong>Charles Baudelaire</strong><br /><br />The only reality is Beauty and its only perfect expression is Poetry. All the rest is a lie.<br /> - <strong>Stphane Mallarm</strong>
zlib_text: For my mother
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > > > Had we never lov’d sae kindly  
  >  Had we never lov’d sae blindly,  
  >  Never met – or never parted,  
  >  We had ne’er been broken-hearted.
  
  > > > > (Robert Burns – ‘Ae Fond Kiss’) If of me you sometimes think  
  >  Send me back my knot of pink!
  
  > > > If with me you will unite  
  >  Send me back my knot of white!
  
  > > > If to me your love is dead  
  >  Send me back my knot of red!
  
  > > > If you have another fellow  
  >  Send me back my knot of yellow!
  
  > > > > > > (Edwardian Valentine)
  
  > > > Je chante pour moi-même.
  
  > > > > > > (Georges Bizet – Carmen)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  > [The Catafalque](index_split_003.html#filepos10541)
  
  > [Our Heroine](index_split_004.html#filepos19947)
  
  > [The 31-year-old Woman Falls in Love](index_split_005.html#filepos21642)
  
  > [The 31-year-old Woman Makes a Salad](index_split_006.html#filepos22786)
  
  > [Our Heroine’s Mother Makes an Entrance](index_split_007.html#filepos27338)
  
  > [Our Heroine’s Step-Father and His Fateful
  > Infl