20 Best Love Poems For Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and what better way to express your love than with the timeless beauty of poetry? In this article, you’ll find 20 of the most romantic love poems, perfect for sharing with your sweetheart on this special day. Whether you're looking for classic verses or something a little more contemporary, you're sure to find inspiration here to ignite the flames of passion. Get ready to delve into the language of love and make this Valentine's Day unforgettable!
Table of Contents
- 20 Best Love Poems For Valentine's Day
- Valentines Day and Love Poems
- 20 Love Poems For Valentine's Day
- Sonnet 116
- How Do I Love Thee?
- She Walks in Beauty
- A Red, Red Rose
- Give All to Love
- To My Dear and Loving Husband
- The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
- When You Are Old
- Habitation
- Wild Geese
- Variations on the Word Sleep
- I Love You
- Sonnet
- Having a Coke With You
- Touched by an Angel
- Love Sonnet XI
- This Marriage
- The Constellation in Your Smile
- Urban Serenade
- The Unsent Letter
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Valentines Day and Love Poems
Valentine's Day is a celebration of love in all its forms. It's a time for romantic gestures, heartfelt expressions, and cherished moments. And what better way to capture the essence of love than through poetry? Love poems have a unique ability to convey deep emotions and create a lasting impression. They offer a window into the soul, expressing feelings that words alone sometimes fail to capture. So, this Valentine's Day, consider the power of a carefully chosen poem to make your message truly special.
20 Love Poems For Valentine's Day
Here are 20 romantic love poems, curated to inspire and touch the heart this Valentine's Day:
1. Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
2. How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
3. She Walks in Beauty
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
4. A Red, Red Rose
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
5. Give All to Love
Give all to love;
Obey thy heart;
Friends, kindred, days,
Estate, good-fame,
Plans, credit and the Muse,—
Nothing refuse.
'Tis a brave master;
Let it have scope:
Follow it utterly,
Hope beyond hope:
High and more high
It dives into the sky,
Without injury,
And nothing to envy.
6. To My Dear and Loving Husband
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
7. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
And all the craggy mountains yields.
There will we sit upon the rocks
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs.
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my Love.
The shepherds’ swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.
8. When You Are Old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
9. Habitation
Marriage is not
a house or even a tent
it is before that, and colder:
the wind inside the wind.
How can you use it? what
can you say where it is?
Nowhere.
And when you try to reach it
it recedes, like a mirage in the desert.
Except that what you feel is real.
It is not something you enter,
it happens for example
on the subway.
It is the way you sit together
the world happening
nowhere, or
somewhere small
and moist,
between the palms of your hands.
10. Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
11. Variations on the Word Sleep
I would like to be the air
that inhabits you completely.
I would like to be that unnoticed
and that necessary.
I would like to be a shadow
that only you can see,
a dark secret that would go with you
into the light of your sleep.
I would like to be the place you go to
when you are the most tired and alone.
I would like to be sleep itself
in your arms.
12. I Love You
I love you for what you are, but I love you yet more for what you are going to be.
I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals.
I pray for your dreams that they may be fulfilled, through life and beyond.
I love you for your faults rather than your perfections, for your shortcomings as much as for your greatness.
I am not deceived into believing that you are perfect, for that would be a discourtesy to your mortal nature.
Your defects may disturb me, but they do not repel me.
I love you not because you are always right, but even when you are wrong.
I love you not only for the love you give me, but for the love that you radiate for others.
I love you for your humanity rather than your divinity.
I love you because you can learn, and because you will learn from your mistakes.
I love you because you sometimes fail, not in spite of it.
I love you even if you make me unhappy sometimes, for I have known what it is to be happy because of you.
I love you for everything that you are, have been, and yet to be.
13. Sonnet
All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now,
and after this one just a dozen
to launch a little rowboat out on the poetic sea.
Then only ten more left like rows of beans.
How easily they dwindle away to nothing,
then nine, then eight till late they float
gently past the three syllables of oblivion.
They drift out on the surface like leaves
while seven, six, five are falling fast.
Under three we row, two of us me and you
that's what it comes down to the final one.
A sonnet is nothing if it doesn't end in love
leaving you with nothing at all but something to remember.
14. Having a Coke With You
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
more fun than Pamplona, more fun than being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
or walking all over the Cuatro Caminos looking for a place to eat
more fun than Madrid, even though the Prado is cool
and Reina Sofia is even cooler, and El Escorial is all right
I mean it's nice to be with someone in Spain
more fun than the Automat once or twice
more fun than getting drunk on gin with James and Elliot and Mike and D.H. on the beach
more fun than going to the races in Saratoga
more fun than riding on the A train four times to Harlem to take out the garbage
more fun than Brooklyn Bridge on a Sunday
more fun than seeing Ginger Rogers in Swing Time again and again
but most of all more fun than going to the movies even you
or the San Remo bar is even more fun with you or
seeing your picture on the cover of Art News is better than seeing Benvenuto Cellini's vase
or anything else is in that museum in Vienna
it's that you are so cute, you are cute, and you
are a man, it's nice to walk around with you
15. Touched by an Angel
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
16. Love Sonnet XI: I Do Not Love You as If You Were a Rose Salt Topaz
I do not love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.
17. This Marriage
May these vows and this marriage be blessed.
May this marriage be as sweet as milk and honey.
May this marriage be as intoxicating as old wine.
May this marriage be fertile and bring forth children.
May this marriage be for laughter and joy.
May this marriage be a haven against the storms.
May this marriage be a school for wisdom.
May this marriage be a bridge across difficulties.
May this marriage be a river flowing between two shores.
May these vows and this marriage be blessed.
18. The Constellation in Your Smile
I trace the constellations in your smile,
Each tiny star a secret I compile.
Your eyes, a universe of quiet grace,
Reflect the galaxies within your face.
The moonbeams of your laughter light the night,
And banish shadows with their silver might.
My heart, a comet, drawn within your sphere,
Finds its true orbit, safe and ever near.
For in your presence, all the cosmos sings,
And love's eternal song forever rings.
19. Urban Serenade
Within the city's grey and hurried hum,
Your laughter rings, a vibrant kingdom come.
The brick and steel, the avenues of care,
Dissolve in sunshine when your smile is there.
A wildflower blooming in a concrete space,
You bring a beauty to this crowded place.
And though the sirens wail their mournful plea,
Your love's a melody that shelters me.
So let the city's chaos rage and roar,
With you beside me, I can ask for more.
20. The Unsent Letter
I held the ink, the words took flight,
But dared not send them in the night.
My heart, a humming, frightened bird,
Knows all that must remain unheard.
A love too vast, too deeply sown,
Within a world that feels its own.
To whisper all my soul contains,
Might shatter joys, or bring down rains.
So sealed within, the secret lies,
Reflected only in my eyes.
And though unspoken, still it's true,
My silent, endless love for you.
Conclusion
This Valentine's Day, let the power of poetry help you express the depth of your love. Whether you choose a classic sonnet or a contemporary verse, these 20 love poems offer a beautiful and meaningful way to connect with your partner. Happy Valentine's Day!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the most romantic poem written?
Determining the "most romantic poem" is subjective, but many consider Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)" to be a strong contender. Its passionate declaration of love resonates with readers even today. Other popular choices include Shakespeare's sonnets and poems by Pablo Neruda.
What is a short rhyme for Valentine's Day poem?
Here's a short and sweet rhyme:
"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Happy Valentine's Day,
I love you true!"
What is a short verse for Valentine's Day?
A short verse for Valentine's Day:
"My heart beats only for you,
My love forever true.
Happy Valentine's Day, my dear,
With you is all I hold near."
What is the best message for Valentine's Day?
The best message is genuine and from the heart. Consider this: "Happy Valentine's Day, my love. You bring so much joy and happiness into my life. I cherish every moment we spend together." Personalize it by mentioning a specific quality you admire about your partner or a special memory you share.
How do you write a cute Valentine poem?
To write a cute Valentine poem, maintain the following steps:
- Keep it Short & Sweet: A few lines are often more effective than a long, rambling poem.
- Use Simple Language: Avoid overly complicated words or metaphors.
- Focus on Specific Qualities: Mention something you love about your partner's personality or appearance.
- Add a Touch of Humor (Optional): A lighthearted joke can make the poem even more endearing.
- End with a heartfelt wish: Finish with a simple "Happy Valentine's Day" or "I love you."
What poem expresses true love?
Many poems express true love, but often, poems that focus on acceptance, unwavering support, and cherishing imperfections best capture the essence of true love. Consider poems that talk about a deep connection that transcends physical attraction and focuses on emotional intimacy.