I haven't read this, but I think that "Crush" by Richard Siken is typically the answer to this? Joyce Carol Oates' "You Must Remember This" provides a disturbing portrayal of intense longing and desire. "Love in the Time of Cholera" is a stereotypical answer, but it's a great book.

halincandenza

2 months ago

Oh I love Crush! Definitely fitting and would recommend you read it. 'Scheherazade' and 'Litany in Which Certain Things are Crossed Out' are just beautiful. Thanks for the recs! Haven't read Love in the Time of Cholera somehow...

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Alcools by Apollinaire deals with ill-fated love and nostalgia in a very modernist way, see for example « Le pont mirabeau » or « Les cloches ».

halincandenza

2 months ago

Ooh!! Was looking for French language recs generally so this hits two birds with one stone. Thank you!

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Marina Tsetaeva's poems

Charlotte Mew comes to mind: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55326/rooms-56d236ccd8a74

Pablo Neruda's Twenty Love Poems. And his Song of Dispair.

Off the top of my head, on a loose definition of "yearning": The Sea, the Sea - Iris Murdoch Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy Eros the Bittersweet - Anne Carson The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers

A. E. Housman has some great unrequited love poems. There is some war stuff which I don't like but he was writing around WW1 so it's excusable. Shake Hands Shake hands, we shall never be friends, all's over; I only vex you the more I try. All's wrong that ever I've done or said, And nought to help it in this dull head: Shake hands, here's luck, good-bye. But if you come to a road where danger Or guilt or anguish or shame's to share, Be good to the lad that loves you true And the soul that was born to die for you, And whistle and I'll be there. A.E. Housman Also, Amy Levy I will never stop recommending https://allpoetry.com/Sinfonia-Eroica https://allpoetry.com/Magdalen https://allpoetry.com/poem/8474533-Felo-de-Se-by-Amy-Levy

kunst

2 months ago

Seconding Housman

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halincandenza

2 months ago

Thank you so much!

1Reply