Bitter Lips, Sweet Heart

A Poetry Collection

"Thy lips are bitter, and sweet thine heart.

The hopes that hurt and the dreams that hover."

- Algernon Charles Swinburne, "O tender-hearted, O perfect lover"

Bitter Lips, Sweet Heart is a unique collection of romantic poetry first assembled by a group of young male college students who got together to read poetry and drink tea every week, thinking themselves spurned romantics and talented poets. Most of the original selections have been forgotten, and the collection has been updated for this simple release with a sense of irony and sheepishness in mature adulthood. May its angst, irony, lust, and innocent affection amuse and entertain you today, just as it did the four nerdy boys who assembled it to communicate, as only the Victorian and classical masters of poetry could, their romantic curses and proud complaints years and years ago.

Includes poetry by the Johns (Keats and Donne) and the Williams (Blake, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Yeats) in addition to well known and unique pieces by Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Andrew Marvell, Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Tennyson, Sir John Suckling, Lord Byron, and more.

©2022 Adriel Brandt (P)2022 Adriel Brandt