Romanticism was the largest artistic movement. Romantics made order and rationality of classical and neoclassical artistic precepts to embrace revolution and freedom to be opposite. Romantic ideals never died out in poetry it absorbed the precepts of many other movements.
![Picture](/uploads/2/3/9/8/23980743/1176372.jpg)
We Have Not Long To Love
BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
We have not long to love.
Light does not stay.
The tender things are those
we fold away.
Coarse fabrics are the ones
for common wear.
In silence I have watched you
comb your hair.
Intimate the silence,
dim and warm.
I could but did not, reach
to touch your arm.
I could, but do not, break
that which is still.
(Almost the faintest whisper
would be shrill.)
So moments pass as though
they wished to stay.
We have not long to love.
A night. A day....
BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
We have not long to love.
Light does not stay.
The tender things are those
we fold away.
Coarse fabrics are the ones
for common wear.
In silence I have watched you
comb your hair.
Intimate the silence,
dim and warm.
I could but did not, reach
to touch your arm.
I could, but do not, break
that which is still.
(Almost the faintest whisper
would be shrill.)
So moments pass as though
they wished to stay.
We have not long to love.
A night. A day....
Happy times do not last forever. "coarse fabrics are the ones for common wear." This is stating that its better to protected in life. "intimate silence dim and warm." he wants the time to stay exactly how its is at that time because he like the silence it comforts him. Sitting in silence isn't bad in this case it is allowing the time to feel as if it is lasting forever. if he was to say something or move then the moment would be ruined. So appreciate the good times and don't take anything and anybody for granted. "we have not long to love." is a paradox because you may believe that we have forever to love and in reality time flies and as soon as you look up it is too late. assonance sounds are constantly repeated throughout this poem. "...stay/... away" "...wear/...hair" "...warm/...arm" "...still/...shrill" "...stay/ ...day"