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How to Write a Love Poem

Last Updated: June 15, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook . Alicia Cook is a Professional Writer based in Newark, New Jersey. With over 12 years of experience, Alicia specializes in poetry and uses her platform to advocate for families affected by addiction and to fight for breaking the stigma against addiction and mental illness. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from Georgian Court University and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Alicia is a bestselling poet with Andrews McMeel Publishing and her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the NY Post, CNN, USA Today, the HuffPost, the LA Times, American Songwriter Magazine, and Bustle. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of the 10 social media poets to know and her poetry mixtape, “Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately” was a finalist in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 2,008,899 times.

Writing a love poem can be a challenge, as you want to avoid being too sappy or sentimental, but still sincere. You may want to write a love poem for your partner or spouse as a romantic gesture or to celebrate a special occasion, such as your anniversary as a couple. To write a love poem, start by brainstorming ideas and thoughts. Then, write the poem using sensory detail and unique descriptions. Polish the love poem and present it in a thoughtful way so the recipient knows it came straight from the heart.

Sample Love Poems

help writing love poems

Brainstorming Ideas for the Love Poem

Step 1 Describe your feelings about a particular person.

  • For a love poem about your romantic partner, you may write, “sexy in the morning,” “greatest laugh in the world,” and “always optimistic in the face of adversity.”

Step 2 Focus on a loving moment or experience.

  • For example, you may write about traveling with your partner and how you felt overwhelming love for them during that experience.

Step 3 Read examples of love poems.

  • “Sonnet 40” by William Shakespeare [2] X Research source
  • “Flirtation” by Rita Dove [3] X Research source
  • “Having a Coke With You” by Frank O’Hara [4] X Research source
  • “Video Blues” by Mary Jo Salter [5] X Research source
  • “[love is more thicker than forget]” by e.e. cummings [6] X Research source

Writing the Love Poem

Step 1 Choose a form for the poem.

  • You may also choose a form based on whether you want the poem to rhyme or have a very rigid structure.
  • For example, for a love poem for a romantic partner, you may go for a traditional sonnet form.

Step 2 Use sensory description.

  • For example, you may describe the sound of the glasses clinking on the table at the romantic restaurant where your partner proposed.

Step 3 Include metaphor and simile.

  • For example, you may use a metaphor like, “My partner is a fierce tiger.”
  • You can also use a simile like, “My partner is as bright as a peacock on a cold winter day.”

Step 4 Avoid cliches.

  • For example, rather than use a cliche like “My love is like a red rose,” you may write, “My love is like a hothouse orchid” or “a prickly cactus.”

Step 5 Use humor and wit.

  • For example, you may include a line about how your partner makes funny faces when they are upset.

Polishing the Love Poem

Step 1 Read the poem out loud.

  • You should also look over the poem to make sure there are no spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.

Step 2 Show the poem to others.

  • You can also present the poem with a small gift to celebrate your love for the person.

Community Q&A

Community Answer

Tips from our Readers

  • When you're writing your love poem, make sure that it's respectful and age appropriate. If not, the other person might be freaked out!
  • Don't repeat the word "love" over and over again. Introduce new words on each line to make your poem more interesting.

You Might Also Like

Define Love

  • ↑ http://www.powerpoetry.org/actions/6-tips-writing-love-poem
  • ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50426/sonnet-40-take-all-my-loves-my-love-yea-take-them-all
  • ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/35278/flirtation
  • ↑ https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/having-coke-you
  • ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47549/video-blues
  • ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/22224/love-is-more-thicker-than-forget
  • ↑ https://lewisu.edu/writingcenter/pdf/sensory-details-resources-final-update-1-1.pdf
  • ↑ (use humor and wit) with https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/40068/Louie_washington_0250O_17282.pdf?sequence=1

About This Article

Alicia Cook

If you want to write a love poem, start by making a list of the words that come to mind when you think about the person, such as "sexy in the morning" or "greatest laugh in the world." Alternatively, write down a moment when you felt particularly loving towards them. When you start writing the poem, focus on sensory descriptions like sound, smell, and touch. As you write, try to include metaphors by comparing one thing to another and make your sentences unique to avoid cliches, like "my love is like a red rose." To find out how to polish the poem and how you should present it to your loved one, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Love poems have tried to capture the essence of love since the dawn of poetry itself. Because love is a highly personal and variable experience, no two love poets will approach the topic in quite the same way. As a result, a corpus of beautiful love poems has emerged throughout our many millennia of writing and sharing poetry.

Whether you’re looking for inspiration, preparing for Valentine’s day, or trying to write love poems of your own, the examples included in this article will help you express the fantastic complexity of love. Along the way, we’ll discuss how to capture this convoluted emotion in language, and provide tips on how to write a love poem of your own.

Before we examine romantic love poems, let’s address the hardest part first. How do you write about love?

At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. —Plato

How to Write About Love

Love is complicated, ineffable, and constantly changing. It is a feeling, an experience, and a decision you constantly make. Our interpretations of love vary across languages, cultures, religions, time periods, and individuals. Love can transform, destroy, renew, and strip down. And no two loves are ever the same. How do we write about it?

Because love is highly specific to the poet writing about it, the best love poems often make use of literary devices , especially metaphor and imagery , to convey the poet’s unique experiences.

Take these two excerpts from love poems, which describe the experience in vastly different ways:

All I want is to finally take off my cowboy hat and show you my jeweled

horns. If we slow dance I will ask you not to tug on them but secretly I will want that very much.

—From “ My Kingdom for a Murmur of Fanfare ” by Kaveh Akbar

Compare this with the following:

I feel kind of, I don’t know, like my inner space heater and TV and washing machine are all going at once.

—From “ Party ” by Kim Addonizio

These two excerpts come from poems that approach love from different directions. Kaveh Akbar’s poem acknowledges the sense of monstrosity inherent to being loved: the desire to hide the worst parts of yourself from your lover, but also to have those parts undressed by them.

Kim Addonizio’s poem, by contrast, looks at the experience of falling in love with someone and feeling your entire brain and heart activated by them.

Both poems make use of metaphor and imagery to expand upon the poet’s experience of love. Additionally, each poem focuses on a singular aspect of love. Rather than trying to fit every dimension of love into a single piece, these beautiful love poems dwell on the specific, utilizing particular details, events, and images to connect to broader romantic experiences.

To summarize, the best love poems do the following when talking about love:

  • Utilize metaphor and imagery.
  • Focus on specific events, details, and experiences.
  • Connect personal experiences to universal emotions through poetic forms and devices.

Love Poems and Clichés

A popular concern for writers working on love poems is the unintentional use of clichés. A cliché is an already-written phrase that has been overused in literature and conversation, to the point that nearly everyone recognizes the phrase instantly.

As you would expect, there are countless clichés about love. Roses are red, violets are blue; absence makes the heart grow fonder; love is blind; love at first sight; love comes when you least expect it, etc. These sayings are trivial, overused, and, quite frankly, they are often untrue.

How do we avoid them? Sometimes we can’t. But in our own love poems, what we can do is subvert clichés or rewrite them to our advantage.

Take the below excerpt, from the poem “ One Art ” by Elizabeth Bishop:

This is, essentially, the cliché “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Yet, it isn’t that cliché at all: the poet has imbued this stanza with specificity and emotional depth. She suggests that, though loss seems to be disaster, it is anything but. While she cannot tell the reader what loss means to them, there is a sense of hope here, a sense that loss does not have to be disaster, no matter the pain.

In your own love poems, rely on depth and specificity. A cliché becomes cliché when it is too universal, describing similar experiences without any emotion or detail. Let your words take the form of the love you’re describing, and you won’t need clichés to communicate what is your own unalterable voice.

Examples of Romantic Love Poems

Let’s take a look at how poets have addressed the question of love in their writing. From short love poems to long ones, from the romantic to the anti-love, and from the works of classic and contemporary poets, let’s examine some poems that are almost as infinite as love itself.

Romantic Love Poems

These romantic love poems perfectly transcribe the poet’s experiences of romance, while also giving the reader a window into that experience.

“The Two Times I Loved You the Most In a Car” by Dorothea Grossman

It was your idea to park and watch the elephants swaying among the trees like royalty at that make-believe safari near Laguna. I didn’t know anything that big could be so quiet.

And once, you stopped on a dark desert road to show me the stars climbing over each other riotously like insects like an orchestra thrashing its way through time itself I never saw light that way again.

Grossman’s poem connects the specific to the universal. By describing two specific moments in time that the poet experienced with the person she loves, this poem shows the reader what it’s like to have your perception transformed , quite literally, as a result of love itself.

“Other Lives and Dimensions and Finally a Love Poem” by Bob Hicok

My left hand will live longer than my right. The rivers of my palms tell me so. Never argue with rivers. Never expect your lives to finish at the same time. I think

praying, I think clapping is how hands mourn. I think staying up and waiting for paintings to sigh is science. In another dimension this is exactly what’s happening,

it’s what they write grants about: the chromodynamics of mournful Whistlers, the audible sorrow and beta decay of Old Battersea Bridge. I like the idea of different

theres and elsewheres, an Idaho known for bluegrass, a Bronx where people talk like violets smell. Perhaps I am somewhere patient, somehow kind, perhaps in the nook

of a cousin universe I’ve never defiled or betrayed anyone. Here I have two hands and they are vanishing, the hollow of your back to rest my cheek against,

your voice and little else but my assiduous fear to cherish. My hands are webbed like the wind-torn work of a spider, like they squeezed something in the womb

but couldn’t hang on. One of those other worlds or a life I felt passing through mine, or the ocean inside my mother’s belly she had to scream out.

Here, when I say I never want to be without you, somewhere else I am saying I never want to be without you again. And when I touch you in each of the places we meet,

in all of the lives we are, it’s with hands that are dying and resurrected. When I don’t touch you it’s a mistake in any life, in each place and forever.

Hicok’s poem meanders from idea to idea like light orbiting a black hole, but when the poem reaches the center, everything clarifies. The speaker’s contemplation of different realities brings us to the point: any dimension where the speaker doesn’t have the object of his love is a wasted dimension.

“​​How Do I Love You?” by Mary Oliver

How do I love you? Oh, this way and that way. Oh, happily. Perhaps I may elaborate by demonstration? Like this, and like this and no more words now

Tender as ever, Mary Oliver’s poem is certainly up for interpretation, but each “like this” seems to represent a kiss for the poet’s lover. The fact that the poem ends without a period suggest something open-ended and ongoing about this love, and for the reader, each “like this” might suggest some different but equally meaningful demonstration of desire.

Other romantic love poems include:

  • “Want” by Joan Larkin
  • “Name” by Carol Ann Duffy
  • “Macrophobia (Fear of Waiting)” by Jamaal May
  • “Love Letter” by Nathalie Handal
  • “Love” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • “Every Day You Play” by Pablo Neruda

Short Love Poems

Brief and sweet like a mid-winter kiss, these short love poems will warm your heart in the coldest of months.

“On a Train” by Wendy Cope

The book I’ve been reading rests on my knee. You sleep.

It’s beautiful out there – fields, little lakes and winter trees in February sunlight, every car park a shining mosaic.

Long, radiant minutes, your hand in my hand, still warm, still warm.

This short free verse poem captures a small moment in time in which life—still, tranquil, and mundane—abounds with the beauty of love and warmth.

“Hummingbird” by Raymond Carver

Suppose I say summer , write the word “hummingbird,” put it in an envelope, take it down the hill to the box. When you open my letter you will recall those days and how much, just how much, I love you.

Although Carver’s short poem is deeply personal—the reader doesn’t understand what “summer” or “hummingbird” specifically refers to—we can still connect to the poem’s themes of nostalgia and epistolary love.

“Coda” by Octavio Paz

Perhaps to love is to learn to walk through this world. To learn to be silent like the oak and the linden of the fable.

To learn to see. Your glance scattered seeds. It planted a tree. I talk because you shake its leaves.

Paz’s poem acknowledges a certain humanness to love. We are not born with perfect capability to love and be loved; we must learn how to love, and constantly work at that learning. But, when we learn to love, it “plants a tree”—it propagates, scatters seeds, flourishes between two lovers’ eyes.

Other short love poems include:

  • “Our Story” by William Stafford
  • “I Did Think, Let’s Go About This Slowly” by Mary Oliver

Sonnet Love Poems

A sonnet is a 14 line poem with a “volta,” or surprising shift in language, that usually occurs between lines 6-8. Depending on the time period and location of the poet, the sonnet may have additional requirements, like certain meters or rhyme schemes. While sonnets can discuss many things, they have a history as short love poems, so let’s take a look at romance in 14 lines.

“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

One of the most famous love poems in literature, “Sonnet 18” begins with the time immemorial line “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The poem compares the speaker to a beautiful day, yet makes one key distinction: while summer days are transitory and impermanent, the object of the speaker’s desire will be eternally beautiful, for the speaker’s love imbues her with a loveliness not even death can steal.

“Entanglement” by Carmen Giménez Smith

We love what’s best in our beloved, what’s worst in them. You have to like what time does. Each day I talk to the part of me that is my beloved from a tiny telephone in me. I communicate in the clicks and beeps of our abbreviated tongue. Love is a long trial, a wending, and an uneven effort. I hate the word faith, but that’s all there is. Only the last one standing knows the score. Think of the types of violence on a continuum, and toward the mildest end is love. I’m torn by you! I scream when my beloved pulls at our bond. I’m an alien host or we are two yous subsumed by a single body. The beloved says, You changed my brain; and I am at that mercy, which is meant as a warranty for longevity, but there is no real promise: you keep knowing each other and knowing each other.

Few love poems are as all-encompassing as this sonnet. The speaker describes love’s many contradictions: loving the best and worst in people; equal partnership versus unequal efforts; love versus violence; self and other versus the singularity of two lovers; trust and faith versus a lack of promise. At the end of it all, love is a constant act of learning about each other as both people, inevitably, grow and change.

“Maundy Thursday” by Wilfred Owen

Between the brown hands of a server-lad The silver cross was offered to be kissed. The men came up, lugubrious, but not sad, And knelt reluctantly, half-prejudiced. (And kissing, kissed the emblem of a creed.) Then mourning women knelt; meek mouths they had, (And kissed the Body of the Christ indeed.) Young children came, with eager lips and glad. (These kissed a silver doll, immensely bright.) Then I, too, knelt before that acolyte. Above the crucifix I bent my head: The Christ was thin, and cold, and very dead: And yet I bowed, yea, kissed – my lips did cling. (I kissed the warm live hand that held the thing.)

On Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter), Christians line up to kiss the feet of the crucified Jesus Christ, which represents, among other things, the washing of Jesus’ feet and the loving humility which Jesus commanded. This poem boldly subverts that religious tradition, as the speaker offers forbidden love to the boy holding the crucifix, rather than the crucifix itself. Much can be interpreted from this symbolic gesture, but regardless of interpretation, this poem’s proclamation of queer desire (in the United Kingdom during World War 1, no less) proves both transgressive and deeply romantic.

Other sonnets include:

  • “Sonnet 29” by William Shakespeare
  • “Sonnet VII” by Hartley Coleridge
  • “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Lost Love Poems

Like love, heartbreak is a deeply personal experience, and no two heartbreaks are the same. Nonetheless, these lost love poems might provide a bit of solace.

“Are All the Break-Ups in Your Poems Real?” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

If by real you mean as real as a shark tooth stuck in your heel, the wetness of a finished lollipop stick, the surprise of a thumbtack in your purse— then Yes, every last page is true, every nuance, bit, and bite. Wait. I have made them up—all of them— and when I say I am married, it means I married all of them, a whole neighborhood of past loves. Can you imagine the number of bouquets, how many slices of cake? Even now, my husbands plan a great meal for us—one chops up some parsley, one stirs a bubbling pot on the stove. One changes the baby, and one sleeps in a fat chair. One flips through the newspaper, another whistles while he shaves in the shower, and every single one of them wonders what time I am coming home.

Deftly moving between humor and heartbreak, this poem fills the emptiness of lost love with wit and imagination. Imagining a home filled with ex-lovers-turned-husbands, the poet reflects on what it means to feel desired, regardless of the factual nature of these relationships. By writing this poem in the form of a sonnet, Nezhukumatathil subverts many conventions of love poetry, getting to the core of love—whether real or imaginary.

“The Paleontologist’s Blind Date” by Philip Memmer

You have such lovely bones , he says, holding my face in his hands,

and although I can almost feel the stone and the sand

sifting away, his fingers like the softest of brushes,

I realize after this touch he would know me

years from now, even in the dark, even

without my skin. Thank you , I smile—

then I close the door and never call him again.

The use of “blind date” in the title of this contemporary sonnet is a very effective pun . While the poem itself might be describing a blind date, what’s more compelling is the speaker’s assertion that this almost-lover would know the speaker even if blinded, “in the dark.” The speaker’s decision to never call this almost lover demonstrates a certain fear of being known, or perhaps, a fear of the quickness with which he would have been known.

“One Last Poem for Richard” by Sandra Cisneros

December 24th and we’re through again.

This time for good I know because I didn’t throw you out — and anyway we waved.

No shoes. No angry doors.

We folded clothes and went our separate ways.

You left behind that flannel shirt of yours I liked but remembered to take your toothbrush. Where are you tonight?

Richard, it’s Christmas Eve again and old ghosts come back home.

I’m sitting by the Christmas tree wondering where did we go wrong.

Okay, we didn’t work, and all memories to tell you the truth aren’t good.

But sometimes there were good times.

Love was good. I loved your crooked sleep beside me and never dreamed afraid.

There should be stars for great wars like ours. There ought to be awards and plenty of champagne for the survivors.

After all the years of degradations, the several holidays of failure, there should be something to commemorate the pain.

Someday we’ll forget that great Brazil disaster.

Till then, Richard, I wish you well.

I wish you love affairs and plenty of hot water, and women kinder than I treated you.

I forget the reason, but I loved you once, remember?

Maybe in this season, drunk and sentimental, I’m willing to admit a part of me, crazed and kamikaze, ripe for anarchy, loves still.

Among break up poems, this one reigns supreme. The poem’s honesty, vulnerability, and insight into the speaker’s relationship drudges feelings of tenderness and nostalgia—and this despite the many years of anger and frustration described in the poem.

Other lost love poems include:

  • “An Empty House is a Debt” by Diana Khoi Nguyen
  • “Postcard I almost send to an almost lover” by Emily Wilson
  • “To the Dead” by Frank Bidart

Love Poems About Yearning

It is only natural to want the people we do not have. Whether seeking past loves or future ones, these are some of the best love poems about yearning.

“Warming Her Pearls” by Carol Ann Duffy

for Judith Radstone

Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress bids me wear them, warm them, until evening when I’ll brush her hair. At six, I place them round her cool, white throat. All day I think of her,

resting in the Yellow Room, contemplating silk or taffeta, which gown tonight? She fans herself whilst I work willingly, my slow heat entering each pearl. Slack on my neck, her rope.

She’s beautiful. I dream about her in my attic bed; picture her dancing with tall men, puzzled by my faint, persistent scent beneath her French perfume, her milky stones.

I dust her shoulders with a rabbit’s foot, watch the soft blush seep through her skin like an indolent sigh. In her looking-glass my red lips part as though I want to speak.

Full moon. Her carriage brings her home. I see her every movement in my head…. Undressing, taking off her jewels, her slim hand reaching for the case, slipping naked into bed, the way

she always does…. And I lie here awake, knowing the pearls are cooling even now in the room where my mistress sleeps. All night I feel their absence and I burn.

The speaker of this poem uses her mistress’ pearls as a symbol for unmet desires. Notice how the speaker never has direct physical contact with her lover, but that the pearls are the primary vehicle for touch. The warmed pearls are the speaker’s way of expressing love to her mistress, taking the place of the affection she desires but cannot have.

“Little Crazy Love Song” by Mary Oliver

I don’t want eventual, I want soon. It’s 5 a.m. It’s noon. It’s dusk falling to dark. I listen to music. I eat up a few wild poems while time creeps along as though it’s got all day. This is what I have. The dull hangover of waiting, the blush of my heart on the damp grass, the flower-faced moon. A gull broods on the shore where a moment ago there were two. Softly my right hand fondles my left hand as though it were you.

It’s hard not to include every poem Mary Oliver has ever written in this article. No, she’s not a love poet by trade, but her work explores what it means to be alone in the world, and how that loneliness can be a wellspring of both isolation and connection, both joy and despair, both emptiness and beauty. This poem is no different: in the slow, dim moments of waiting for love, the speaker still manages to find beauty and connection in the soft but certain motions of nature.

“Scheherazade” by Richard Siken

best love poems scheherazade by richard siken

It is equally difficult not to include every piece by queer poet Richard Siken in this section about yearning. Siken’s poems abound with obsession, desire, and self-destruction—though at the center of these emotions, writes Louise Glück, lies an immovable sense of “panic.” In “Scheherazade,” the speaker yearns for a love that will ruin both him and the object of his affection, perhaps because that is the only type of love he has ever known (or believes he deserves).

Other Beautiful Love Poems

Although the following poems are a little harder to categorize, they are equally valuable contributions to the age-old conversation about love.

  • “Corpse Song” by Margaret Atwood
  • “O Small Sad Ecstasy of Love” by Anne Carson
  • “Turing Test_Love” by Franny Choi (live reading)
  • “I Think Love is Something That Happens to Other People” by Michael Gray
  • Aubade Beginning in Handcuffs by torrin a. greathouse
  • “Detail of the Fire” by Richard Siken

Before reading this, you may want to read our guide on how to write a poem . It covers the basics of poetry writing, and how to distill emotions, experiences, and images into language. We will be approaching the topic of how to write a love poem in much the same way: clarifying emotions, delving into experiences, and sharpening images.

Do you want to write a poem for your beloved? Here are some tips to keep in mind.

“Every love has its landscape.” –Rebecca Solnit

How to Write a Love Poem: Write About Specific Moments

What moments stand out to you in the history of your relationship? Often, the best love poems start from these key moments. Additionally, eschew the urge to write about grand, sweep-you-off-your-feet love. It is often the mundane and quotidian which reveals to us the true nature of our love.

For reference, read the above love poems “On a Train” by Wendy Cope and “The Two Times I Loved You the Most In a Car” by Dorothea Grossman.

How to Write a Love Poem: Magnify Your Emotions

Love is not a singular emotion. When we love someone, it raises all sorts of emotions, and we often experience our feelings in a sort of constantly-moving kaleidoscope. What the poem does for us is freeze the kaleidoscope in place and magnify our feelings, crystalizing them in language.

How do certain moments with your beloved make you feel? “Zoom in” on those feelings with imagery, metaphor, and other literary devices. In Bob Hicok’s poem about alternate realities, he writes “When I don’t touch you it’s a mistake in any life, / in each place and forever.” A literary theorist might describe this as a hyperbole, but to poets, we know precisely the intensity of this feeling.

How to Write a Love Poem: Consider Sound

Sound often sets the mood of the poem, and considering your word choice will help you refine your piece. Unless you’re writing a heartbreak poem, focus on building euphony, which is sweet-sounding language built upon consonance, assonance, rhyme, meter, and rhythm.

A great example of euphonious love poetry comes from “Coda” by Octavio Paz: “Your glance scattered seeds. / It planted a tree. / I talk because you shake its leaves.” The combination of rhyme, rhythm, and “s” sounds makes this a delightful set of lines, capable of repeating themselves over and over again in your heart.

How to Write a Love Poem: Be Vulnerable and Imperfect

Pardon the use of this cliché, but really, write from the heart. Romantic love poems are built on honesty and vulnerability. It can often feel embarrassing to admit the intensity of our feelings, but our intensities belong in poetry.

Take any of the above love poems. Imagine each poet shared their poem with the object of their desire. Would the poet feel secure and self-satisfied? Have you met poets?

Take a risk, write what you feel, and be vulnerable with the page. Don’t strive for perfect, strive for real . It is when we can be honest with ourselves that true, meaningful, productive love can form, both with ourselves and with the people we love most.

Write the Best Love Poems at Writers.com

Sharpen your craft and write honest, beautiful love poems at Writers.com. Whether you take our workshop on love poetry or one of our upcoming poetry classes , you’ll discover all the possibilities that poetry offers to you, your emotions, and the words you wish to send to your beloved.

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7 Tips For Writing A Love Poem

help writing love poems

Even when words feel like they’re not enough to express your love, poetry can help. Equipped with legions of literary tools that move the soul, poetry can be an effective and touching way to show love.

Whether you’re lovesick, in love, or want to show a family member how much you love them, a love poem can be your answer. Even though poetry can solve the problem of feeling like you’re not saying enough, you still have to work hard for your love poem to speak.

Nervous? Not sure where to start in order to tackle this beast? We’ve got you covered with 7 tips on how to write a love poem for any occasion.

How To Write A Love Poem: 7 Tips

Think of your subject. Hone in on your inspiration, on your subject of love. Think about why you’re writing this. Do you want to reveal your love or show how deep it is? Think about what effect you want this poem to have. Once you understand the general intent of your poem and get in the zone, it’ll be a lot easier to let the words flow.

Form is your friend . Choose widley. Love poems are often characterized by romantic structures. One of Shakespeare’s most famous poems, “ Sonnet 18 ,” popularized the sonnet as a love poem structure. You can also try an ode or a ghazal . Each of these poem structures contributes to a different tone and vibe. Think about picking one that matches your subject and intention, or you can pave your own path.

Hyperboles can be good, but don’t get too cheesy . Love can take an incredibly powerful hold on your entire being, so it only makes sense that poems tend to describe such feelings with exaggeration. Oftentimes, hyperboles are extremely effective. But if you’re going to use one, make it original. 

Add specific details . Love comes through in the details you notice and capture, especially the ones that only you know. Think about what details and conclusions you can draw from these details. A great example of this is in Craig Arnold’s “ Bird-Understander ,” where he writes about his lover through her letters about a bird in an airport.

Think about your metaphors . Love poems tend to feel like they’re saying more than words because they are experts of comparisons. As you write your own, think about what metaphors you can use. Carefully pick one and think it through. Bonus points if you use something sensory, like a brilliant visual or specific smell. 

Get vulnerable . Expressing your love is inherently vulnerable, so it follows that love poems are challenging. If you catch yourself having writer’s block, reflect a bit. Are you hesitating saying more or putting yourself out there? Think about ways you can be vulnerable but still be comfy. Challenge yourself. The vulnerable love poems are the honest ones and, typically, good ones.

Be you . It’s easier said than done, but when you’re writing, stay true to you. Learning how to write a love poem isn't about making your writing sound too sappy or romantic or rhymey. Be sincere, be you and all your wonderful personality. It does sound corny, but the best love poems are those that come from your heart. 

Now you know how to write a love poem! Are you ready to try it out? Nerves are good, but don’t worry too much. Believe in what you have to say and that your words are valid. When you conquer this, join the other brave writers of this community and share your work on PowerPoetry.org . You can explore our other poetry resources too!

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  • How to Write Perfect Love Poems (+ 5 Great Examples to Inspire Your Heart and Mind!)

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This article explores what love poems are, how to write the perfect one, and our favorite contemporary examples

What are love poems , how to write love poems, choose your subject carefully , find your form, have a sensory focus, consider metaphors, don’t be afraid to get vulnerable, 5 examples of great love poems, love and friendship by emily bronte, she walks in beauty by lord byron, love by carol ann duffy, yours by daniel hoffman, for him by rupi kaur.

Valentine’s Day is closer than you think! So, what better time to explore love poems and romantic rhythms?

Research any book of poems and you’ll find one of the most prolific themes of them all is, of course, love.

Love offers a range of emotions that can be thoroughly explored through poetry. 

But how do you crack the code of writing a love poem that doesn’t sound cliché and allows the reader to immerse themselves into the visual you’re trying to create?

Time to get in touch with our feelings…

Love poems are written pieces that conveys any form of love and the various emotions that stem from it.

This can include romantic love, sibling love, a love for a pet, or love for the great outdoors—anything that impacts you greatly! 

Think of love poems as a window into your heart for the reader to peep through. Powerful, right? 

People take different approaches to writing love poems. Some go down a humorous route and compose limericks while others create ballads to add drama and emotion.

Freelance writers may feel like poetry is for other types of writers, but the practice is quite relevant to your craft !

Love is a complex theme to explore, so love poems need to creatively communicate certain aspects of it rather than attempt to tackle the emotion or experience as a whole.

This means the poet should aim to explore feelings of being in love, feeling a lack of love, yearning for love, and so on.

What’s your inspiration?

Who or what is your muse?

Consider why you are writing a passionate poem. Once you’re clear on your subject and intent, it becomes a lot easier to let those  words naturally flow. 

Between sonnets, free verses, haikus and all other poetry forms, you’ll want to find the form that feels right for you.

If you’re not sure how about this, let’s take a look at each form in a bit more detail: 

Sonnet’s are known as a daily old form of poetry used by none other than Shakespeare himself! Originating in the 13th century, sonnet comes from the Italian word for “little song,” and it is typically made up of 14 lines. Most sonnet poems center themselves on love so it could just be the perfect form for your next passionate piece of writing.

As a more modern, popular style of poetry, free verse gives the writer a lot of liberation in how many lines and stanzas they can work with.  Although the freedom of this poetic form seems like an easy option to choose, it actually is more tricky because of the lack of guidance!

This ancient Japanese poetry form became globally renowned for its complete simplicity. Consisting of only three lines and only five syllables on the first and third line, Haiku form is a fun activity for anyone to try out—though it may not be your best bet for an intimate love poem.

Evoking a dramatic and emotionally-driven story, ballads use a set form of four lines with a rhythmic scheme. You’ll find most pop songs these daycare ballads even though they originated from written poetry. 

Most poems center themselves on imagery to create a clear picture in the minds of readers, and love poems are no different. 

They tend to rely on senses, symbolism and figurative language to connect with their audience and convey a particular message. 

Think about what details you can draw from your subject. Andre Breton does a great job of pulling out the intricate details in his ode to a woman who he has not met, ‘Always for the first time’ where he describes his feelings as a “hopeless fusion of your presence and absence.”

If there is anything that love poems are notorious for is their brilliant use of metaphors that can make you feel all sorts of emotions in one line! 

Love poems are experts of comparisons in a bid to create flatter, however  we’d recommend not over-using them. Instead add metaphors in places where you want the reader to feel or see something, otherwise the poem can become a little over-sappy!

Getting vulnerable with your poem is essentially the key to making it a genuine and gripping read. While it’s easy to immerse ourselves into a fictional story for children’s poems and that of similar style, love poems require honesty and raw emotion. The more realistic you are about your experience, the better your poem will be. 

We end up dealing with writer’s block not because we can’t think of what to say, but because we fear letting the words in our mind come onto paper. But in reality, that’s what makes a great love poem!

In need of love poetry inspiration?

We’ve rounded up a list of our most adored poems that really touched our hearts.

Love is like the wild rose-briar, Friendship like the holly-tree— The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms But which will bloom most constantly? The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring, Its summer blossoms scent the air; Yet wait till winter comes again And who will call the wild-briar fair? Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now And deck thee with the holly’s sheen, That when December blights thy brow He still may leave thy garland green.
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.
you’re where I stand, hearing the sea, crazy  for the shore, seeing the moon ache and fret for the earth. When morning comes, the sun, ardent,  covers the trees in gold, you walk 
I am yours as the summer air at evening is  Possessed by the scent of linden blossoms,  As the snowcap gleams with light  Lent it by the brimming moon.  Without you I’d be an unleaded tree Blasted in a bleakness with no Spring.
no,  it won’t  be love at  first sight when  we meet it’ll be love  at first remembrance  ‘cause i’ve recognized you  in my mother’s eyes when she tells me,  marry the type of man you’d want to raise your son to be like.

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A young woman in her bedroom sits at her desk holding flowers and a letter and looks back at us over her shoulder and smiles

Jean Honoré Fragonard The Love Letter Early 1770s. Courtesy the Met Museum , New York

How to write a love poem

Flirtatious texts are soon forgotten. learn to express your feelings in a beautiful way that will make a lasting impression.

by Dan Simpson   + BIO

is a writer, facilitator and coach. With more than a decade of experience as a professional poet and spoken word artist, he is passionate about supporting others in their expression of creativity, authenticity, and communication. He lives in Brighton, UK.

Edited by Christian Jarrett

Need to know

You’ve noticed the way your mind involuntarily floats back to thinking about them, and the corresponding fluttering of your heart. You recollect the way their face crinkles just so when they laugh, and sensations run like delicious wildfire through your body. You are a child again, daydreaming multiple possible futures with them by your side. When you come to name it, the emotion you feel can only be one thing: ‘love’.

Love, like any emotion, is a personal thing: the way you experience love will be different from the way I feel it – and different again from the way your beloved experiences it too. As well as being a noun, ‘love’ is perhaps more at home as a verb. It’s an active word: love for another changes constantly, the quality of it shape-shifting over time. It’s a state of being, and beings rarely stay in one state for too long. You’re reading this Guide, and so you’re already thinking about capturing the alive sense of love into a set verse of poetry.

Lover: I wish you luck. Not only are you trying to pin onto the page one of life’s most enlivening and magical experiences, but you are following in the footsteps of poets composing from the cradle of civilisation to now. The first known written love poem is from around 2000 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia:

You have captivated me; I stand trembling before you. – ‘The Love Song of Shu-Sin’ (translated by Michael R Burch)

Before that, poets from the preliterate oral tradition were no doubt telling love stories of deities and mortals – and who fancied who in their tribe. Fast-forward through poets who sometimes made love a focus of their verse – Rumi, Shakespeare, Byron, Barrett Browning, Dickinson, Neruda, Rich – not to mention every aspiring and established poet who has had a go at the immortal topic, and it’s a long tradition with some absolute gems. Here are a few quotes to inspire you:

You are the Essence of the Essence, The intoxication of Love . – ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’, Rumi
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach … – ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ (Sonnet 43), Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I dreamed you were a poem, I say, a poem I wanted to show someone … and I laugh and fall dreaming again of the desire to show you to everyone I love … – Poem II from ‘Twenty-One Love Poems’, Adrienne Rich

Writing a love poem is a timeless act

So: why bother? In our age, you can instantaneously slide into someone’s DMs with an AI-generated flirtatious message and it may well achieve the hoped-for outcome. I assume your hoped-for outcome is for a greater sense of closeness, for the recipient of your overtures to know you – and your feelings for them – better. What might follow from that closeness… well, let’s leave that to the imagination. With modern tools at your disposal, it might seem old-fashioned to take the time to write an entire poem for your beloved – but that is the power of a poem: time.

Slowing down to choose the right words that get close to how you feel – and then giving them to someone – is a beautiful statement. It is, in fact, timeless. The poem will be remembered: an email will not. You may be considering writing a love letter – a fantastic form that may even be poetic – but there’s something uniquely powerful about poetry that seems to speak to us. There’s a reason it’s the go-to form for those significant and ceremonial celebrations of love – particularly at weddings.

I’ve focused on romantic love here in this introduction, and in this Guide – what the ancient Greeks called ‘eros’, or sexual love. This form of love is perhaps what we commonly bring to mind when we think about love poetry, though in reality we love in as many ways as there are to be human. The Greeks broke down love into several categories: love for our family (‘storge’), our friends (‘philia’), ourselves (‘philautia’), our guests (‘xenia’), and divine love (‘agape’). We love our pets, places, objects, food, clothes, memories, sunsets, that baited-breath hush of anticipation as a film’s title card is shown at the cinema. We have the capacity to love both deeply and broadly, and only you know the distinct feelings that conjure that word into your consciousness.

This is your challenge: translating your unique experience of love into the common words of our shared language – without being clichéd, obvious or boring.

In a way, all poems are love poems. I write a poem, and in so doing reach out across the chronological and spatial distance between us, desiring to mingle my personal experience with yours. With every poem I write, I ask: do you want to know me better? Do you want to feel this, too? Do you want to be less alone? Anyone and everyone can write a love poem, and I encourage you to try. Trying is, in itself, an act of love – for yourself, at least.

Lover, take my hand: I will guide you to find your voice, and help free it to speak of your love.

Whatever happens with your poem, remember: I love you for even trying.

A confession: I can’t tell you how to write, let alone how to write well. What I can do is suggest some approaches, provide some practice exercises, and tell you it will be OK.

Lover: you, and the poem, will be OK.

Get into the right mindset

Before you take on the first writing exercise, a word on the right frame of mind for writing.

As you get started, you may notice resistance coming up – or even a block that has you staring at the blank page, unable to move forwards. The two-headed enemy of writers may arrive in the form of distraction and procrastination: suddenly your emails or the washing up become very important – more important than writing poetry, surely? And actually, you just need to get the right music playing first, and perhaps you should do this at home rather than on the bus because you need a cup of tea to write, right?

Gently stop, and feel what’s happening here. These may be responses to some inner voice of self-judgment – a part of you that doesn’t believe you are capable of writing a good poem, or writing a poem at all. That voice might sound critical: like a judgmental elder you believe when they say you are not talented or skilled enough. That voice might start comparing your writing (even if you’ve not done any yet) to others’ – you’re no Shakespeare, pal! Maybe you feel a sense of defeat before you begin: since it’ll never be a perfect poem, why bother?

This spiral of self-doubt might culminate in the thought ‘I’m not a creative person’ which is something I hear people worry about regularly when I’m running poetry workshops. The truth is you are creative : as a child, you most likely danced freely and sung silly songs; you made up stories with your toys and went on epic adventures in your head; you finger-painted and coloured outside the lines and did not care what anyone else thought – instead, you showed it all off, saying: ‘Look what I made! Look, it’s me!’

I would like to encourage you to get into this child-like, playful frame of mind when tackling the exercises I’m about to share with you. They are a game to try, with no way to ‘win’ or ‘lose’; an experiment with no expected outcome. If those doubting voices come up, notice and acknowledge them – and then set them aside, recognising them as the unhelpful parts that they are. Whatever you write will be right, because there is no wrong way to do this. The main thing here is to simply begin.

As Julia Cameron, author of the hugely influential and transformative The Artist’s Way (1992), says in The Right to Write (1998):

Being in the mood to write, like being in the mood to make love, is a luxury that isn’t necessary in a long-term relationship. Just as the first caress can lead to a change of heart, the first sentence, however tentative and awkward, can lead to a desire to go just a little further.

So, Lover, take a deep breath and let us make the first caress that may result in a poem.

Practise writing about your beloved

Part of the challenge of writing a love poem is that it can feel incredibly daunting and you might not know where to start. Here is an initial exercise that can get you started by providing you with some material to play with. Take a moment and bring to mind your beloved. Now, finish these sentences – don’t overthink it, whatever flows out is good:

  • When I think about you, I…
  • You always…
  • I remember when we first met…
  • A secret only we know is…
  • I love it when you…
  • When we met, I felt…
  • When your face does that thing…
  • Something we share is…
  • When I miss you, I…
  • One day we’ll…
  • Something I can’t tell you is…
  • If you weren’t in my life, then…

Read back through your complete sentences. Do you want to expand on any of these? Feel free to take a second pass with new endings. Feel free to be guided by your intuition and get down some material!

Come up with some simple metaphors

There’s no fixed recipe for an effective love poem, but a popular ingredient is to include one or more metaphors to bring colour and imagery to your writing. It can be tricky for anyone to produce these on demand as they’re writing, so this second exercise is about digging into metaphor very directly and giving you some more raw material for your poem. Let’s go, Lover!

Thinking about the person you love, finish the sentence ‘You are a…’ using the prompts below. You could name one thing – ie, ‘You are a starfish’ – or be more descriptive – ie, ‘You are a flapping of wings, the arrival of birdsong in the morning.’ Once again, whatever you come up with is good!

  • room in a house
  • item of clothing

What else? Put a timer on for two minutes, and finish the sentence ‘You are a…’ as many times as possible!

Expand on any sentences that feel especially right and interesting to you. In what ways is this person like that thing or description – can you extend the metaphor further? For a twist, go through the list again – this time, with the sentence stem ‘You are not a…’

Find inspiration from love songs and old messages

Here is one further exercise to stimulate your creativity and help you generate some material to work with later on. It’s based on using found and ‘cut-up’ poetry in music and in your own writing. This can be a powerful technique, and has the added benefit of using others’ existing writing as a scaffold for your own.

  • Begin this exercise with a free-write: describe your beloved and your relationship together, write about a favourite memory (using multiple senses and emotions), describe yourself relative to them, and anything else that comes to mind. These can be paragraphs or individual sentences.
  • Next, think of a song that connects you with this person. It could be something you sing together, a song you both love, a soundtrack to your relationship, a song that reminds you of them – if nothing comes to mind, pick your favourite love song. Look up the lyrics and copy and paste or write down lines that stand out to you.
  • Now combine your writing with the lyrics – be intuitive, and see what just seems to fit together. Contrast and juxtaposition work well here too. You may find yourself writing new material around the lyrics, which is also fantastic.
  • Another approach is to find messages you and your beloved have sent to each other, such as texts or emails. Copy and paste or write down any that stand out: funny moments, loving phrases, weird constructions. Combine these with your own writing and see what comes out.

Construct your poem

Lover, if you’ve completed these three exercises (or even just one or two), then you now have an abundance of material to work with. You may have one line you like, or an idea of where your poem could go. You may even have something that feels like a poem already. These are all great outcomes, and mean that you’re ready for the next stage: finishing a first draft. Your task now is to write a singular (or multiple-part) poem from this material you created. That could involve using one line you wrote as inspiration and then writing freely; it could involve mixing up a few of your earlier lines here and there like a puzzle, where you have the edges already done; or you might go for an entirely different approach. I can’t tell you exactly how to do it: trust in your voice, and get it done.

Focus on the personal

A common struggle in writing a poem – any poem – is in the balance between the personal and the universal. Once you start writing your poem, you may feel that you have to capture in some timeless way the experience of being a human in love, in the hopes that anyone reading it thinks ‘Yes! Me too!’ Conversely, you may be worried that being too personal – that writing about the idiosyncratic details of your love – means no one else will relate to the poem.

Carl Rogers , the originator of person-centred psychotherapy, said that ‘what is most personal is most general’ – and this is a maxim artists often apply to their craft. It may feel counterintuitive, but often the more detailed you make your poem, the more relatable it will be. Frank O’Hara’s ‘Having a Coke With You’ is full of such details:

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St Sebastian partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt …

What many readers enjoy in the poem is the author’s loving gaze and awareness: we relate to how we ourselves notice and appreciate the small things about the person we love. Perhaps your beloved doesn’t like yoghurt – but the way they stir their coffee? Oof, it just does something to you.

My advice here is to get away from trying to capture or say anything original about love itself, and focus in on the personal.

Experiment with established forms of poetry (if you want to)

As you prepare to write the first full draft of your poem, I recommend writing free form (not aiming for any particular structure). However, everyone is different and you might find it helpful to follow a particular poetic form or rhyme scheme. There is value to these in keeping a poem flowing and structured, and some people seem to naturally gravitate towards them. If that’s you, lean in and try it out – find a form that appeals, and see where it leads you. You could consider starting with a relatively simple ghazal , though I’d beware the tricky sestina !

The sonnet is a classic 14-line form for love poetry and can be a good place to start for beginners: the length allows for a decent amount of expression without going on for too long, and the rhyme scheme keeps it flowing nicely. If you decide to work to a metre – the pattern of beats and emphasis in a given line – then you’ll discover a sense of rhythm and pace too. Iambic is the classic rhythm, with the emphasis going like a heartbeat: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM. Sonnets come in a few flavours, and it’s quite a flexible form. The main three sonnet forms, with their corresponding rhyme schemes, are Shakespearean (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG), Petrarchan (ABBA ABBA CDE CDE), and Spenserian (ABAB BCBC CDCD EE).

A structure like this can be incredibly useful for keeping a poem tamed – but know that adhering to a strict form can lead to its own frustrations. Like pulling on an errant thread on your jumper, wanting to change one word might result in the entire poem unravelling and in need of reknitting together. Free-form poetry offers the possibility of writing in whatever way you like, and the terror of writing in whatever way you like. You may find some balance between these poles of form, and end with a kind of semi-metred structure with an occasional flash of rhyme. Again, I want to reassure you: treat it as a playground, work through trial and error, and remember that it will no doubt be well received by your love.

Draft and redraft

It’s important to know that you can revisit this initial draft of your poem later with a fresh pair of eyes. In fact, I’d encourage it: you’ll either reread it and agree that it’s ready, or decide to write a second draft, which will often yield a more refined result. I will offer a note of caution on over-editing, though: you can kill the spirit of the thing by worrying too much over it. At some point, when you feel the piece captures well enough what you want to say, resolve it: it is finished.

Key points – How to write a love poem

  • Writing a love poem is a timeless act. Slowing down to choose the right words that get close to how you feel – and then giving them to someone – is a beautiful statement. An email will be forgotten. A poem will not.
  • Get into the right mindset. Self-doubt and fear of not being creative can lead to procrastination. Try to embrace a child-like, playful frame of mind.
  • Practise writing about your beloved. A first step is to create some material to play with. A sentence-completion exercise (about your beloved) is a great place to start.
  • Come up with some simple metaphors. It can be tricky to produce these on demand once you’re writing your poem, so a good follow-up exercise involves generating some metaphors about your beloved.
  • Find inspiration from love songs and old messages. A final exercise to try before you begin your first draft involves digging out memories from your relationship, finding lyrics that resonate, and looking for fun or loving phrases you shared together in the past.
  • Construct your poem. Using all the material you’ve generated, it’s time to pen the first draft of your love poem – trust in your voice and get it done.
  • Focus on the personal. Once you get started, you might struggle to balance more general observations about love with your more personal experiences – my advice is to focus on the personal.
  • Experiment with established forms of poetry (if you want to). I recommend writing free-form poetry, at least when you’re starting out. But if you find the idea of an established form helpful, I suggest writing a sonnet.
  • Draft and redraft. It’s a good idea to revisit your initial efforts with a fresh pair of eyes. But beware of over-editing your poetry.

Sharing your poem with your beloved

Once you’re satisfied with your poem, you can finally gift it to your love. The effort of writing a poem, and sharing it, is in itself an act of love, and I want to congratulate and honour you, Lover. Please let me know in the comments how it goes.

Writing and giving someone a love poem is a significant gesture – and carries with it notions of romance, particularly if we are not already in a relationship with that person. Romantic gestures are often based on surprise, which carries with it a risk that the act may not be wanted. Due to the influence of popular culture (I’m looking at you, Richard Curtis romcoms!), a story you might have is that it’s not possible to be romantic without the surprise element – possibly that they are largely one and the same thing. I’d like to say that this is not true.

Just as some people hate surprise parties because it overloads their nervous systems, an unexpected love poem might make someone feel uncomfortable – or even fearful. It’s important to think not just about your intention, but how the gesture might be received in the context of your existing relationship. This is something you cannot know for sure without asking the other person and getting clarity. Here is a beautiful opportunity to be in consent with the person you want to write for, and have a genuine moment of authentic connection. Imagine asking them if they’d like to receive a love poem from you, and their surprise and expression of happiness when they say ‘Yes’ – and then the joy they’ll feel when you present them with their poem.

And, if they say ‘No’? Well, if your intention is to express your love and care for this person, you can do it in no better way than respecting and honouring their needs, rather than crossing a boundary with your own.

My encouragement is to try to stay unattached to any outcome when sharing this poem. You have chosen to express yourself to this person in poetry, which is a brave and vulnerable thing to do. Let that be enough, and allow space for the other to reveal what they feel in return. Welcome it, whatever it is: you will, by the end of this process, know each other better and hopefully be in closer connection. Which is reason enough for writing them a love poem.

There is a small chance that they laugh at your poem or express dislike of it. This may be a difficult experience for you, having expressed yourself so vulnerably. If this happens, take a breath, thank them for their honesty, allow yourself to feel whatever you feel – and know that your value is not linked to their opinion of your poem, and that you are deserving of love.

Writing more poetry

Now that you’ve given writing a love poem a go, you might feel moved to write more poetry. Do it. Write widely, write wildly. Write for yourself, write for others. Write to be read on the page, write to be heard on the stage. Write about the big stuff, the small stuff, the silly stuff, the serious stuff. Write epics, write haiku. If you feel called to write, write. And then edit. If you like, submit your poems to competitions and for publication. Sign up for an open mic at a poetry or spoken word night and share your words. Put together a pamphlet, a book, and see if anyone wants to read it. Put your poems on Instagram and make TikTok videos of your readings.

And be gentle on yourself as you do all this. The last thing I’d like to offer here is an invitation to love yourself. Do yourself the honour of writing a love poem to you. Lover: you are your own beloved, and you deserve it.

Links & books

For more poetic forms and devices, read ‘Poetry 101’ on the website MasterClass for a good introduction .

Watch this YouTube video for an entertaining performance of the poem ‘When Love Arrives’ (2015) by Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye, full of those little details lovers notice about each other.

The book Twenty-One Love Poems (1976) by Adrienne Rich is a brilliant, modern collection of love poems – available on the second-hand market.

In the YouTube video ‘Lines of Love’ (2021), a cardiologist, an artist and a poet (me) get together for a scientifically informed workshop: follow along to make a card and write a poem for your love!

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5 Tips on How to Write a Love Poem

5 Tips on How to Write a Love Poem

4-minute read

  • 14th February 2021

With Valentine’s Day upon us, what better way to declare your love than with a poem ? We even have five top tips to help you write a love poem:

  • Read a range of love poems to get some inspiration.
  • Decide what type of poetry you want to write.
  • Think about the feelings you have for the person you are writing to.
  • Find a way to make your poem unique and personal.
  • Proofread your poem to make sure it is error free.

For more detail on writing romantic verse, watch the video or check out our guide below.

1. Read Some Classic Love Poems

Love has long been a favorite topic for poets. Famous examples include “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns, “Sonnet 18” by Shakespeare, “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron, and “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

These are classics of the genre, so they’ve shaped the language and style we expect from love poems today. But many modern poets have come up with new and interesting ways of saying “I love you” in poetry as well.

John Cooper Clarke, for instance, imagines himself as a vacuum cleaner :

I wanna be your vacuum cleaner Breathing in your dust I wanna be your Ford Cortina I will never rust

If you like your coffee hot Let me be your coffee pot You call the shots I wanna be yours

Similarly, Frank O’Hara finds passion in the ordinary in “Having a Coke with You,” while Roger McGough keeps it short and sweet in the four-line poem “Beguiling.”

These examples show you don’t have to stick to a serious or overused formula.

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2. Choose a Poetry Form

There are many forms of poetry . Popular choices for love poems include:

  • Sonnet – A style of poetry most associated with Shakespeare. At only 14 lines long , a sonnet is perfect for expressing strong emotions.
  • Acrostic – A poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word (e.g., the name of your beloved).
  • Concrete poetry – Poems in which the words form an image on the page. An easy option for a love poem would be a heart, but why not go for something more personal to you and the person you’re writing for?

Of course, you don’t have to restrict yourself to these styles. You could use free verse , which isn’t restricted by meter or rhyme, giving you free rein to express your feelings. But picking an established form can help if you’re not sure where to start!

3. Think About Your Feelings

Before you start writing your love poem, think about the feelings you are trying to express. Think about the person you are writing to and how you feel about them.

A huge range of feelings have been expressed in love poems down the ages, not just the basic idea of “love”! Whether you want to express joy, hope, passion, or fun, thinking about this first will help you set the tone of your poem.

4. Make It Personal

A good love poem should come from the heart. But how can you make sure that your poem feels truly personal? A few helpful tips include:

  • Don’t use old-fashioned or overblown language, including words like “thee” and “thou,” just to sound like Shakespeare. Use your own voice instead!
  • Avoid clichés , such as overused metaphors and similes about roses.
  • Include references to things that make your relationship special. It may be a shared love of Partick Thistle Football Club, a passion for Scrabble, or a shared experience, but details like these can help to make your poem unique.

Aim to write a poem that nobody else could have written! It should express your feelings for the person you love, not a preconceived idea of what “love” should be.

5. Proofread Your Love Poem

Finally, to show you really care, proofread your love poem to make sure it is error free. A poem full of mistakes will not convince anyone of your love, after all!

Whether you are writing a sonnet or a haiku, our editors can help you with all your proofreading needs . Submit a free writing sample today to find out more.

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How to write love poetry

By BBC Maestro Poetry Last updated: 24 January 2023

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Whether you want to surprise your significant other with a poem from the heart on Valentine’s Day, or want to add an extra special touch to your wedding vows, writing your own love poem is the perfect way to do it. 

Read on for an essential guide on how to write love poetry from the heart, with some beautiful insights from former Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.

What makes a good love poem?

How to write a love poem.

  • 1. Identify a subject
  • 2. Decide on form
  • 3. Choose your words
  • 4. Consider imagery and symbolism
  • 5. Be yourself

Learn more about writing

Love is one of the most common themes for poetry, but it can also be one of the trickiest topics to get right. How do you write love poetry that resonates without being too sappy? How can you express true emotion while avoiding clichés? Here are our three key elements of a good love poem.

Avoid clichés

It might be difficult to get right, but sincere emotion that avoids cliché is what elevates love poetry from run-of-the-mill to something spectacular. Carol Ann Duffy reflects on this in her BBC Maestro course, Writing Poetry . She says:

“The love poem is the most challenging poem to write because there’s the danger of cliché, the danger of tipping slightly into sentimental song lyrics. How do we avoid cliché in the love poem?”

Her solution for avoiding cliché? To be aware of it when you’re crafting your poem. That means, firstly, that you need to know what the clichés are when it comes to love poems. Reading widely should help you to become aware of the tropes used when talking about love, like the famous ‘roses are red, violets are blue’.

Knowing what the clichés are, then, can help you to avoid them in your own poetry. She advises to always be conscious of the words you’re using, saying:

“Scrutinise your poems, don’t go for the obvious, the first phrase that comes to mind. Or if you do use a cliché, revitalise it. Alertness to the words you’re using to construct the poem is essential.”

Looking at love through an unorthodox lens may also help you to avoid the predictable. Rather than comparing the object of your affection to a rose, for example, you could think of a different emblem for your love.

Carol Ann Duffy does this in her poem Valentine , in which she gifts her significant other an onion. The opening stanzas read:

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light like the careful undressing of love.

Here. It will blind you with tears like a lover. It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief.

The poem highlights both the good and bad parts of an intense relationship through one central extended metaphor, an unusual Valentine’s gift of an onion. Various aspects of love and relationships are explored through the onion, giving a perspective that is, perhaps, more realistic than – as Duffy says herself in the poem – “a cute card or a kissogram”.

hands reaching up

Explore the universal

Another thing that makes a love poem stand out is when it’s relatable to readers. Most love poems are written with a specific person in mind, and often refer to details that are unique to them. However, they resonate with readers because they also look beyond the specific to universal themes which almost anyone who has loved or lost can relate to.

Take the poem When you go by former Scots Makar, Edwin Morgan:

When you go, if you go, And I should want to die, there's nothing I'd be saved by more than the time you fell asleep in my arms in a trust so gentle I let the darkening room drink up the evening, till rest, or the new rain lightly roused you awake. I asked if you heard the rain in your dream and half dreaming still you only said, I love you.

It's a short poem and undoubtedly calls upon Morgan’s own experiences, but there’s a universality of experience – the remembering of a quiet, peaceful moment with a loved one after they’re gone – that anyone can relate to.

Carol Ann Duffy encourages you to draw upon your experiences when writing love poetry, while being mindful that it should also appeal to a broader audience. She says: “It doesn’t matter if you refer to a particular incident, as long as you’re confident that all lovers could relate to that poem.” One way to connect these individual experiences to universal emotions is with poetic devices like imagery and alliteration.

Heightened senses

“Nowhere are our senses more acute,” Carol Ann Duffy says, “than when we fall in love. We undergo a literal chemical change in our bodies: we produce oxytocin, the love hormone. The poetry equivalent of oxytocin is the love poem.”

The best love poems, then, plays on these heightened emotions with hyperbole and inventive language – or, conversely, they focus in on minute details or everyday events that are completely ordinary but, when in love, seem magical.

Take Carol Ann Duffy’s Tea, for instance. In this poem, she describes the very simple act of making a cup of tea for her loved one, as seen in the opening two stanzas:

I like pouring your tea, lifting the heavy pot, and tipping it up, so the fragrant liquid streams in your china cup.

Or when you’re away, or at work, I like to think of your cupped hands as you sip, as you sip, of the faint half-smile of your lips.

It highlights the heightened experience of love, even in the most everyday of acts. As Duffy explains:

“When we’re in love, we love to do ordinary things. They seem miraculous. We bestow upon the beloved a glamour, a magic that they don’t actually possess, but they do in our heightened state.”

She encourages you to explore language to match those elevated experiences, whether that’s through an exploration of the everyday as in Tea , or through a more elaborate declaration of love, as in Robert Burns’ famous poem, A Red, Red Rose in which he declares everlasting love that will endure even when the couple are separated. The opening two stanzas of that poem read:

O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June; O my Luve’s like the melodie That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

As fair are thou, my bonie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my Dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry.

In Tea and A Red, Red Rose , we have two quite different poems that approach love in two very different ways, but each shows how heightened language and the use of imagery can reflect the heightened experience of being in love and resonate with the reader.

Writing in a notebook

Authenticity, universality, and heightened senses. These are three key ingredients of the perfect love poem, but how can you write your own? Here are our top tips.

1.     Think of a subject

Think about who or what you’re writing about, and what emotions you’re trying to convey. You might find it helpful to draw a mind map or simply jot some ideas down on a piece of paper to get your imagination going. Whether you want to express passion, hope, joy, beauty or even heartbreak and the sadness of love, this will help to form the basis of your poem.

2.     Decide on a form

You could go traditional and write a sonnet, or you could play with free verse. Working within an established form, like a sonnet or blank verse, might be useful to guide you – or you might prefer to let your words pour out, unencumbered by poetic conventions. Not sure which to use? Don’t worry, you can always experiment with different poetic forms until you find the one that best fits your subject and poetic style.

3.     Choose your words

As we mentioned before, the best love poems use heightened language to convey the heightened senses that come with love. You might express this through exaggerated language and hyperbole, or through more subtle literary techniques like anaphora and epistrophe .

4.     Consider imagery and symbolism

Part of the decisions you’ll make around language will be around what imagery to use in your poetry. Most love poems do include some sort of imagery, whether it’s the extended metaphor of the onion in Valentine , or the comparison to a summer’s day in Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 18 . As Carol Ann Duffy says, “We experience the world physically and we must never forget to bring our senses into our language.”

5.     Be yourself

We’ve spoken about crafting poems that have universal appeal but often, the best love poems are inspired by first hand experiences. They may mention details specific to the poet’s beloved, but it’s the honesty and truthfulness of them that ensure they’re resonant with a wide audience. So, don’t be afraid to write from the heart, be a little vulnerable, and draw upon your own personal experiences and emotions when writing a love poem – especially if you’re dedicating it to a particular person for a special occasion.

Hopefully, these tips will get you started with writing your own love poetry. Look out for inspiration in the everyday, draw upon your own experiences and we’re sure that your poems will resonate.

Want to find out more about how to write poetry? Subscribe to Carol Ann Duffy’s BBC Maestro course, Writing Poetry , and learn how to draw upon your own experiences, play around with metre and rhyme, and find your unique voice.

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Poetry Meets Passion: 4 Approaches to Writing a Love Poem

From Shakespeare’s classic sonnets to Rupi Kaur’s shorter verses, love stands out as an enduring subject in poetry. With so much written about love, including whole anthologies , it can prove difficult to ward off cliches and to make such a universal, timeless emotion feel fresh. Of course, new poets don’t have to stumble alone. Some of poetry’s strongest voices have penned unforgettable love poems that we can all learn from. When you’re in love, you have to express it—here’s how.

Find the extraordinary in the ordinary, like Frank O’Hara

Love can be found in the exhilarating: Who wouldn’t adore a romantic vacation, fancy date, or thoughtful, over-the-top present? Despite this common perception of love, however, most see it in daily details, like the way they and their partner make a grocery list together, cuddle up while watching old films, or catch each other’s eyes while browsing used bookstores. Think about it—movie montages are made of these small, significant moments.  

In “Having a Coke with You,” one of my favorite love poems, O’Hara evokes this familiar strategy. He sets the poem while sharing a Coke with a lover, at 4 in the afternoon, and juxtaposes this seemingly common experience with grand, worldly imagery. 

“Having a Coke with you / is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, / Ir ún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne / or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona / partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian / partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt,” O’Hara writes. 

These details, like the lover’s orange shirt and affinity for yogurt, make the relationship specific, but also relatable to any reader. We could all swap these specifics for ones that describe someone we love, making the poem — and O’Hara’s experience of love itself — ageless and transcendent. 

Prompt: What’s something you do every day with the one you love? How could this become the setting of a poem? Include details and specific imagery.

Explore love through a singular metaphor system, like beyza ozer.

Do you and your partner share a fascination with dinosaurs, the paranormal, ‘90s hip-hop, or something else that’s unique and specific to you? That might not seem relevant to poetry, but beyza ozer’s poem “To Summarize a Galaxy,” suggests otherwise. 

This poem comes from ozer and their partner’s love of space. In the poem, this shared interest becomes an interesting, unexpected lens through which to examine love. 

“we are beginning to look like lightning or the frameworks of / buildings too far away or the line where the lake meets the sky. you are every 1996 space / exploration gone right & I am waiting for you to come home with a backpack filled with moon / rock & stardust to keep in our apartment. we find small jars to hide behind our pillows & fill / every corner with something only we have touched,” ozer writes. 

The overarching metaphor of space emphasizes so much about love: how all-consuming it can be, how special and miraculous it can feel, and how it can even seem to suspend gravity. Instead of directly stating these feelings — which could seem too sentimental — ozer lets the metaphor illustrate the point for them. 

Prompt : Hone in on a shared hobby, interest, or obsession between you and your partner. It can be anything you want — the weirder, the better. How can you reflect your love while writing about that overlying subject?

Run with a hypothetical, like tara skurtu .

Have you ever had a dream so emotional it felt real? Skurtu begins her poem “Morning Love Poem” with a retelling of such a dream.

The poem shows how a dream — specifically, a dream that the speaker accidentally killed her lover by feeding them something they were allergic to — can impact real life, often making us more perceptive. Dreaming plays a huge part in love: In addition to dreaming of a lover while asleep, people in love might day-dream about them throughout the day, or plan for the future in a dreamy, hopeful haze. A former professor of mine used to say, “Poems have their own truths.” While a dream might not represent a true event, it can still reveal truths about a relationship or about any experience, as well as provide an interesting entry point for a poem.

“Dreamt last night, I fed you, unknowingly / something you were allergic to. / And you were gone, like that. / … Sometimes, dreams slip poison, make the living / dead then alive again, twirling / in an unfamiliar room. / It’s hard to say I need you enough. / Today I did. Walked into your morning / shower fully clothed,” Skurtu writes, showing how a dream acted as a sort of reawakening.

Prompt : Write about love from the perspective of a dream or of a fear. What real-life truths linger in this imagined reality?

Acknowledge the past — and believe in better, like traci brimhall.

Sometimes, love ends. Sometimes, love results in heartbreak. Whether we mean to or not, almost all of us carry this baggage into new relationships and experiences. Like the speaker in Brimhall’s poem, we can be afraid to surrender to love again.

In Brimhall’s “Aubade With a Confederacy of Daisies,” the speaker acknowledges how past heartache can linger even in a new relationship, as well as broaches the fear and anxiety that can accompany falling in love. While most love poems don’t betray these less idealized feelings, Brimhall’s handling of them makes the poem a portrait of more mature, complex love — love that is all the more precious because the speaker knows how rare and fleeting love can be.

“Love gives me a toothbrush, a confederacy / of daisies, the top half of silk pajamas. And I am / afraid to heal, though kindness opens me like / a pinecone in fire. / … We are still new to each other. / We don’t know how much we will have / to forgive,” Brimhall writes.

Prompt : Let the ghost of a past heartbreak make an appearance in a love poem. What lessons can these different relationships teach each other?

Transform your love into poetry everyone will love. Happy writing!

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How to Write a Love Poem: 5 Easy Tips to Swoon Your Special One

help writing love poems

by r. A. bentinck

February 23, 2023

  • how to write a love poem

how to write a love poem

Writing love poems can be a romantic and creative way to express your feelings towards someone special in your life. 

Whether you’ve been together for years or have just begun a new relationship, expressing your love through poetry is a timeless gesture that is both meaningful and heartfelt. 

In this post, we share 5 easy tips on how to craft a love poem that is sure to swoon your special one.

Tip 1: Start with brainstorming ideas for your love poem

Tip 2: be honest and vulnerable to write the best love poems, tip 3: use metaphors and similes in romantic poetry, tip 4: pay attention to examples of rhythm and rhyme , tip 5: practice, revise, and refine, final thoughts on how to write a love poem.

A great starting point in writing a writing a love poem is to utilize the power of brainstorming.  Brainstorming is a simple yet effective way to ignite your creativity, leading you on your path to writing the perfect love poem . 

Here are some tips on how to get started with brainstorming ideas for your own unique creation: 

  • Before you start writing your love poem , take some time to think about the person you are writing it for.
  • Write down any words, phrases, or images that come to mind when you think about your feelings for them.
  • Focus on using nouns, verbs, and adjectives that will help you express your emotions.
  • Ask yourself questions about what you find most captivating, sentimental, and special about the person you are writing for. This will help to evoke any emotion that may have been left unsaid in words or bring forth feelings that you didn’t even know existed.
  • Jot down words and phrases that come to mind when thinking about this individual – These words could include positive adjectives like “gentle” or “kind” and others describing how the person makes you feel, such as “safe” or “loved.

Writing poems is an incredible form of communication, it enables you to delve deeper into the nuances of your emotion and reveal heartfelt feelings that may otherwise go unexpressed. 

To craft an effective and captivating love poem, you must strive to be honest and vulnerable in your writing. 

When composing a love poem , honesty is key; being authentic in your words and expressions will result in more meaningful sentiments that are sure to resonate with loved ones or readers. 

Don’t be afraid to express your deepest feelings and emotions. Share your thoughts, your fears, and your hopes. Remember, the more honest you are, the more your loved one will appreciate your efforts.

As such, it’s important to avoid clichés or generic phrases when writing about your beloved; instead, focus on expressing personal details about them that make them unique from anyone else.

Writing a romantic poem can be a tricky endeavour. But by using metaphors and similes , the task of writing a love poem suddenly becomes easier. 

Metaphors and similes can help us to articulate our feelings in ways that are powerful , emotional, and often beautiful. 

When used correctly, these poetic tools can make all the difference in creating an amazing poem for your lover. 

Metaphors: Metaphors compare two seemingly unrelated things without using “like” or “as” in order to emphasize similarities between them. 

Similes: Similes also compare two things but use “like” or “as” for emphasis; this makes similes much more direct than metaphors. For example: “Your lips were like rose petals.” 

Both of these techniques offer an easy way for poets to express their emotions with clarity and vivid imagery.

If you want to write a successful love poem, it’s important to pay attention to rhythm and rhyme. 

By using these elements, you can create an emotional piece that will speak directly to your beloved’s heart. One way of creating a lyrical flow in your poem is by focusing on rhythm. 

Try experimenting with different syllable counts and choose which ones work best for expressing what’s in your heart. 

You could also try adding alliterations or internal rhymes into some of your lines, as this will add complexity and sophistication to what can sometimes be seen as a simple form of writing. 

Rhyme is another great tool for making a lasting impression on your audience. When writing a love poem, it is important to pay attention to examples that rhyme as it can help you create your own unique piece of poetry . 

Not only will it make the poem more impactful and beautiful , but it also adds to its romanticism. Rhyming in poetry helps capture the emotions of the writer and provides clarity to their thoughts. 

It is also a great way to emphasize certain words or phrases within the poem, making it stand out from other pieces of writing. 

To get started on crafting your own romantic masterpiece, consider looking at some example poems for inspiration. 

You may find yourself inspired by another poet’s work or simply pick up on tips that can help you create your own piece.

The rhythm and rhyme of your love poem can greatly impact how it is received by your loved one. Consider using a consistent meter or rhythm, and experiment with different types of rhyme schemes .

Always remember, the goal is to create a poem that flows smoothly and sounds pleasing to the ear.

Writing a great love poem takes time, practice, and patience. Don’t be afraid to revise and refine your poem until you are happy with the final product.

Share your poem with trusted friends or family members for feedback. You may even want to consider taking a poetry workshop or class to further develop your skills.

Writing poems is an art that requires practice, revisions, and refinement. It is not easy to put one’s thoughts and feelings into words but with the right practices it can be done. 

Try experimenting with different rhyme schemes or styles of poetry such as haiku or sonnets until something feels right for you. 

As you write, don’t be afraid to make mistakes or get creative—your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect!

Finally, writing a love poem can be a meaningful and romantic gesture that your significant other will remember for years to come.

Writing a heartfelt poem can go a long way in enhancing the quality of your relationship, and I speak from a standpoint of experience with this one.

These 5 tips on how to write a love poem will go a long way in making your loved one feel appreciated and adored.

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How To Write a Love Poem

shaysieg

Love has been the ultimate poetry topic since poetry's beginning. It is one of the strongest emotions after all, and one that sometimes doesn't even feel like words will do it justice. Getting started on a love poem can seem daunting. It's deeply personal and when the subject is so meaningful there can be a lot of pressure to get it just right. We have heard that there are so many " rules " over the years when it comes to good poetry, and while there are certainly rules that make good writing in fact good, poetry is one of those forms of writing that can be much more subjective and "looser" in terms of the rules. This is especially liberating when it comes to writing about love.

There are certainly steps to take that can improve poetry writing in general, and many of these can be applied to writing about any subject. So, for beginners, and anyone who needs a refresher about poetry writing, general writing guidelines, and then most specifically writing about love, the below points will go a long way in leveling up those love poems or give you a place to start if you're ready to get those heartfelt feelings on paper.

1. Read other love poems for inspiration

Reading classic love poems will provide inspiration for writing love poems of your own. As a writer, it's always helpful to read, but even more helpful to read within the genre you want to write. Stephen King once said, If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or tools) to write. Reading and paying attention to details within writing you admire is a great way to get you thinking about the poetry you'd want to create yourself. And since we are discussing love poems, when reading these think about all the different ways poets say "I love you" within their work and what love means to you and how you'd want to express it metaphorically and symbolically. Reading is the most important thing any writer can do to improve and be inspired. Often when a writer is stuck or experiencing writer's block, the best advice is to read. Inspiration will follow!

2. Think about your feelings for the person/subject of your poem

Think about the person, creature, place, thing, the subject of your poem, and what feelings you want to express about them. Not all love poems have to simply have the message of "I love you" but rather can dig further into the depth of what love means to you when associated with something in particular. It could be a happy and joyous love or a tortured love. It could be about passion or the lack thereof. It could be about how different fun is with someone or something you love or when the fun is gone after love. There are a range of feelings to be expressed in love poems, so think about what your feelings are for your subject matter and let the words flow from there.

3. Start small

Think about a single moment or experience you shared with the person you want to write about. It's also helpful to write down any words or phrases you associate with them, and then start small utilizing those words, phrases, or that one experience. A short poem of a few lines or even less is a good way to get the creativity flowing and start to familiarize yourself with love poems and the emotion that comes along with them. Try writing a haiku or even a brief reflective idea that may either stand on its own or become incorporated into a longer poem later. Some of the most impactful and heartfelt writing can be short and simple but have endless depth. Simply getting started can be more than half the battle, so don't think you have to write a long narrative love story to make meaningful poetry. Quality outweighs quantity every time.

4. Write first, edit later

Nothing kills creativity like editing as you are writing. The first draft can (and often should) be full of liberties and mistakes and writing that might not even make sense because getting the ideas and feelings out is what first drafts are all about. Editing is a more technical part of the writing process, and it can impede the creative process. Don't think about how the poem isn't perfect or you can't find the right word or description just yet. Write first, the refining and perfecting will come later. But once you have your ideas in order, be sure not to neglect editing either. Love poems are deeply personal so looking at them from a technical angle might not feel right, but it is important to make the writing the best it can be.

5. Read your poems out loud

Reading out loud helps you pick up on the way the words sound and flow together in ways that you may miss or not realize while reading silently. This can allow you to see if your word choice is working well, if your sensory details are hitting the way you intended, and if your emotion is coming across in the way you envisioned. Reading aloud is important for any type of writing and should always be part of the editing process. This allows you to hear your poems from a reader's point of view.

6. Utilize literary devices

Using tools like metaphor, simile, personification, allegory, and so on are some of the things that make poetry so powerful. Poems are often known for being deep or even interpretative, and this is especially true for love poems. These devices invite the reader to think deeply and draw their own conclusions or link their own experiences to what they feel through the use of them.

7. Use sensory descriptions

Sensory descriptions are one of the most important aspects of good writing. They are about showing versus telling . This comes down to emotion, thoughts, feelings, and even expressing ideas in simpler ways without outright telling the reader in stiff language. Every few lines ask yourself if these are verses the reader can see, smell, hear, feel, and taste firsthand. If the answer is no, then you will want to infuse your lines with more sensory descriptions. This is especially true for love poems because we often associate our feelings with certain aspects that appeal to the senses. Perhaps a certain food reminds you of the subject of your love poem, so describe its taste, texture, and smell as an example. Always look to appeal to the senses, this is where powerful writing emerges.

8. Make it deeply personal

In order to make your love poem deeply personal, it should express ideas that are particular to the relationship you are writing about and are entirely unique. Try to avoid clichés , outdated language, and broad references because then it will seem like anyone could have written the piece and it could be about anyone. Be sure to include references and feelings that make up the special relationship and could only be about that relationship.

9. Choose the form of your poem

While free verse poetry has risen in popularity in the modern era, there are so many different forms of poetry that serve as a great starting point. Some writers do better when they have parameters they must stay within, plus it's a great challenge to get the creative juices flowing. Look up the different forms of poems like haiku, villanelle, quatrain, and so on , all with their own set of rules (number of lines, rhyme scheme, meter, etc.) to familiarize yourself with poetry in all its possible forms. Being able to incorporate versatility into your writing is always valuable, even if you do end up gravitating toward free verse poetry.

10. Write what you know

Writing what you know doesn't necessarily mean only sticking to topics you know about or have experienced firsthand. Writing what you know means there should be an emotional truth that you have experienced on some level and has been part of your life. Even fictional poems, or any work of art, will have pieces of the artist within the creation. To write a love poem, you will likely have a subject in mind when beginning, but even if you don't have only one subject you can draw upon multiple experiences and topics to bring together one feeling you know to be true. Whether fiction or nonfiction, emotional truth is what makes writing resonate.

Love is one of the core topics of poetry that has been around since the beginning, and this topic will not be going anywhere in the future. Love is a feeling everyone is familiar with, and everyone has their own ideas and associations with what it is about and all the complications that come along with it. This is one of the most powerful emotions for writers to focus on, and while taking into consideration all the tips for what makes writing standout, truly moving poetry will emerge in the name of love.

Header image by Debby Hudson .

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65 Beautiful Love Poems Everyone Should Know

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Blog – Posted on Tuesday, Sep 14

65 beautiful love poems everyone should know.

65 Beautiful Love Poems Everyone Should Know

There’s nothing quite so moving as beautiful love poems. Luckily for us romantics, they’ve been in abundant supply throughout history! From Rumi in the Islamic Golden Age, to iconic playwright William Shakespeare, to modern-day “Instapoets” like Rupi Kaur, love has been one of the most-explored themes among writers and poets for centuries. 

In this post, we’ve put together the 65 most beautiful love poems ever written. Whether you’re looking for something to share with your partner, seeking solace after a breakup, or craving inspiration for how to write your own passionate prose , there’s bound to be a poem on this list which speaks to your heart. 

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1. “Come, And Be My Baby” by Maya Angelou

help writing love poems

Maya Angelou was one of America’s most acclaimed poets and storytellers, as well as a celebrated educator and civil rights activist. In ‘Come, And Be My Baby’, Angelou beautifully captures how overwhelming modern life can be and the comfort that love can provide during times of hardship — even if only for a moment.

2. "Bird-Understander" by Craig Arnold

These are your own words
your way of noticing
and saying plainly
of not turning away
you have offered them 
to me    I am only 
giving them back 
if only I could show you
how very useless 
they are not

The raw honesty of Craig Arnold’s poetry makes ‘Bird-Understander’ an easy pick for our list of the most beautiful love poems. In this piece, Arnold recounts a moment with his partner that makes his love grow even stronger. The language is simple yet evocative, putting a strong metaphor in the reader’s mind and facilitating a deeper understanding of Arnold’s feelings.

3. "Habitation" by Margaret Atwood

at the back where we squat 
outside, eating popcorn
the edge of the receding glacier
where painfully and with wonder
at having survived even
we are learning to make fire

Best known for her alarmingly realistic dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale , Margaret Atwood demonstrates similar strengths in this poem: ‘Habitation’ is strikingly real. For context, Atwood here admits to the challenges of marriage and acknowledges the work needed to overcome them. It is this candor which makes the poem so beautiful.

4. "Variations on the Word Love" by Margaret Atwood

help writing love poems

One of the most fascinating things about love is that it can come in so many different forms — platonic, passionate, or even patronizing. Margaret Atwood unflinchingly lays out some of these in her poem ‘Variations on the Word Love’.

5. "The More Loving One" by W.H. Auden 

Were all stars to disappear or die, 
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime, 
Though this might take me a little time.

Whilst poems about heartbreak might not be as uplifting as those about the joys of love, they can be equally as beautiful and meaningful. The celestial extended metaphor of W.H. Auden’s ‘The More Loving One’ demonstrates this — though ultimately he would rather be ‘the more loving one’ himself, Auden perfectly encapsulates the pain of loss when love ends.

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6. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet 

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.

Anne Bradstreet’s Puritan belief that marriage is a gift from God comes across strongly in ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband.’ Reading it through a modern lens, it’s easy to start the poem feeling a little skeptical; however, Bradstreet’s genuine gratitude and dedication to her husband soon manifests to make it a deeply moving assertion of true love.

7. "Always For The First Time" by André Breton

There is a silk ladder unrolled across the ivy
That leaning over the precipice 
Of the hopeless fusion of your presence and absence 
I have found the secret 
Of loving you
Always for the first time

‘Always For The First Time’ is André Breton’s ode to a woman he has not met, but is willing to wait every day for. Breton was the French founder of the surrealist movement, which aimed to blur the lines between dreams and reality in art — explaining the rather whimsical nature of this beautiful love poem. 

8. "Love and Friendship" by Emily Brontë

help writing love poems

Love doesn’t have to be confined to romance — love between friends can be just as strong and beautiful. In ‘Love and Friendship’, Emily Brontë compares romantic love to a rose — stunning but short-lived — and friendship to a holly tree which can endure all seasons.

9. "To Be In Love" by Gwendolyn Brooks

Next on our list of the most beautiful poems about love is ‘To Be in Love’ by Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks was a poet, author, and teacher — and perhaps most notably, in 1950, was also the first African-American writer to receive a Pulitzer Prize. In this powerful poem, Brooks conveys the intense emotions which come with falling in love and how it can change your entire outlook on life.

To be in love
Is to touch with a lighter hand.
In yourself you stretch, you are well.

10. "How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

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.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a renowned Victorian poet who influenced the work of many later English-language poets, including Emily Dickinson. ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ is one of Browning’s most recognizable poems, and indeed one of the most famous love poems ever written — its ardent yet clear declaration of love has resonated with readers for over 150 years. 

11. "A Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns 

help writing love poems

Similar to Browning, Robert Burns’ profound love is evident in his poem ‘A Red, Red Rose’. Burns declares this love to be both passionate and refreshing — with each comparison, we see that even the loveliest language pales next to the depth of Burns’ ‘Luve’. 

12. "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron 

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.

Though its author was known for a life of adventure and scandal, Lord Byron’s poem ‘She Walks in Beauty’ refers notably less to passionate or sexual love compared to his other works. That said, his astonishment at this woman’s beauty comes across instantly, making this a beautifully romantic poem.

13. "Love is a fire that burns unseen" by Luís Vaz de Camões

Love is a fire that burns unseen, 
a wound that aches yet isn’t felt, 
an always discontent contentment, 
a pain that rages without hurting,

One of Portugal’s greatest poets, Luís Vaz de Camões is known for his lyrical poetry and dramatic epics. ‘Love is a fire that burns unseen’ is an example of the former, reflecting his numerous turbulent love affairs and how each brought a complex fusion of pleasure and pain.

14. "Beautiful Signor" by Cyrus Cassells

This is the endless wanderlust:
yours is the April-upon-April love
that kept me spinning even beyond your eventful arms 
toward the unsurpassed:
the one vast claiming heart, 
the glimmering, 
the beautiful and revealed Signor.

‘Beautiful Signor’ is an entry from Cyrus Cassells’ poetry collection of the same name, which he dedicated to ‘Lovers everywhere’. Culturally set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic, the collection aims to remind people of the potent beauty of romantic love.

15. "Rondel of Merciless Beauty" by Geoffrey Chaucer 

Upon my word, I tell you faithfully
Through life and after death you are my queen;
For with my death the whole truth shall be seen.
Your two great eyes will slay me suddenly;
Their beauty shakes me who was once serene;
Straight through my heart the wound is quick and keen.

Widely regarded as the ‘Father of English poetry’, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote some of the most renowned works of the English language, including ‘The Canterbury Tales’ and ‘The Book of the Duchess’. The standalone poem ‘Rondel of Merciless Beauty’ (here translated from Middle English) recounts Chaucer’s heartbreak after being left by the love of his life, pledging his everlasting devotion to her even though it pains him.

16. "Love Comes Quietly" by Robert Creeley 

help writing love poems

Robert Creeley’s short but striking love poem aptly summarizes the feeling of never wanting to be apart from the person you love, almost making you forget what life was like before you met them.

17. "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]" by E. E. Cummings 

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done 
by only me is your doing,my darling)

As one of America’s most prolific twentieth century poets, E.E. Cummings needs no introduction. Many of his poems centered around love and ‘[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]’ is perhaps the best-known of them all. The rich imagery and intimate infatuation earns it a prominent spot on our list of the most beautiful love poems ever written.

18. "[love is more thicker than forget]" by E.E. Cummings

love is more thicker than forget 
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet 
more frequent than to fail

Another brilliant example of Cummings’ love poetry is [love is more thicker than forget]. This poem explores the complexity of love, expressing that it cannot simply be defined as one thing or another — and indeed, painting love as a paradox of rarity and frequency, modesty and profundity, sanity and madness, and much more.

19. "Sthandwa sami (my beloved, isiZulu)" by Yrsa Daley-Ward

my thoughts about you are frightening but precise
I can see the house on the hill where we make our own vegetables out back
and drink warm wine out of jam jars
and sing songs in the kitchen until the sun comes up
wena you make me feel like myself again.

Yrsa Daley-Ward’s ‘Sthandwa sami (my beloved, isiZulu)’ is one of the most personal and revealing accounts of love on this list. The poem comes from her collection bone, which tackles some of the deepest aspects of humanity, including religion, desire, womanhood, race, and vulnerability.

20. "Married Love" by Guan Daosheng

Have so much love, 
Burns like a fire, 
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.

Guan Daosheng was a Chinese painter and poet of the early Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). ‘Married Love’ uses the image of clay figurines to represent two lovers being united as one through the sacred act of marriage, just as clay solidifies in a kiln.

21. "Heart, we will forget him!" by Emily Dickinson 

Heart, we will forget him!
You and I, to-night!
You may forget the warmth he gave, 
I will forget the light.

‘Heart, we will forget him!’ aligns with the forceful nature of so many Emily Dickinson poems . It is a powerful reflection of the fallout after a passionate love affair and how she tried to move on, going so far as to command her heart to do so, even knowing it’s futile.

22. "Air and Angels" by John Donne 

help writing love poems

John Donne’s work is known for tackling faith and salvation, as well as both human and divine love. In ‘Angels and Air’, Donne compares his love to the movement of angels — pure and elegant. His conclusion that two lovers can come together and grow stronger adds another layer to this already quite romantic poem.

23. "Flirtation" by Rita Dove 

Outside the sun 
has rolled up her rugs
and night strewn salt 
across the sky. My heart 
is humming a tune
I haven’t heard in years!

The sparkling flirtation at the start of a new relationship is surely one of the most exciting parts of love. ‘Flirtation’ by Rita Dove eloquently captures this joy and anticipation, and is one of the most relatable poems about this aspect of love. 

24. "Heart to Heart" by Rita Dove 

It’s neither red
It doesn’t melt
or turn over,
break or harden,
so it can’t feel

In ‘Heart to Heart’, Rita Dove rejects the typical clichés that come with falling in love. With her down-to-earth approach to the topic, she assures the intended reader that although she may struggle to show her love, that doesn’t mean it’s not there. 

25. "Love" by Carol Ann Duffy 

you’re where I stand, hearing the sea, crazy 
for the shore, seeing the moon ache and fret
for the earth. When morning comes, the sun, ardent, 
covers the trees in gold, you walk 
towards me,
out of the season, out of the light love reasons.

In 2009, Carol Ann Duffy made history when she was appointed the first female and openly lesbian British poet laureate. ‘Love’ is a perfect example of the monologue-style poems she is known for, fitting in with her usual sensory and emotional style of writing; here, she describes love as beautifully boundless, like the light of the sun or the crashing sound of waves. 

26. "The Love Poem" by Carol Ann Duffy 

help writing love poems

‘The Love Poem’ takes a different tack, depicting Duffy’s struggle to find the right words to describe her love. It comes from her 2005 collection Rapture, which charts the speaker’s journey through a love affair; at this stage, Duffy gets metafictional about love poetry, striving to explain the challenges of writing it (and invoking several other famous poems along the way).

27. "Before You Came" by Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Don’t leave now that you’re here—
Stay. So the world may become like itself again:
so the sky may by the sky,
the road a road,
and the glass of wine not a mirror, just a glass of wine.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote of love, politics, and community throughout his tumultuous life, and has been especially acknowledged for his contributions to traditional Urdu poetry. In ‘Before You Came’, Faiz writes about how his perspective on life changed after falling in love and how he never wants to be without his lover, who helps him see things as they truly are.

28. "Lines Depicting Simple Happiness" by Peter Gizzi

It feels right to notice all the shiny things about you
About you there is nothing I wouldn’t want to know 
With you nothing is simple yet nothing is simpler
About you many good things come into relation

The beauty in Peter Gizzi’s poetry stems from its simplicity. In ‘Lines Depicting Simple Happiness’, Gizzi’s adoration for his love is clear — however, he avoids overused clichés, meaning the poem is both more personal and less mawkish than other modern love poems.

29. "Six Sonnets: Crossing the West" by Janice Gould 

In that communion of lovers, thick sobs
break from me as I think of my love 
back home, all that I have done
and cannot say. This is the first time 
I have left her so completely, so alone.

Janice Gould’s work homes in on themes of love and connection, with strong links to her identity as a Maidu lesbian. In ‘Six Sonnets: Crossing the West’, Gould equates her lover to a dream, never running short on ethereal ways to describe her... and mourning when she slips away, even temporarily.

30. "For Keeps" by Joy Harjo 

help writing love poems

Contrasting love with the beauty of nature helps to create an unbreakable bond between the two. This comparison helps illustrate Joy Harjo’s feelings for her lover in her marvelous poem, ‘For Keeps’.

31. "You Are the Penultimate Love of My Life" by Rebecca Hazelton 

  The garden you plant and I plant
                             is tunneled through by voles,
                                                         the vowels                                          
              we speak aren’t vows,
               but there’s something
                             holding me here, for now,  
             like your eyes, which I suppose                                               
              are brown, after all.’

‘You Are the Penultimate Love of My Life’ is an unorthodox love poem, focusing on the realities rather than the fantasies of being in love. Rebecca Hazelton isn’t writing about her soulmate, and she’s aware of that — but that doesn’t make the love they share any less special.

32. "Yours" by Daniel Hoffman 

I am yours as the summer air at evening is 
Possessed by the scent of linden blossoms, 
As the snowcap gleams with light 
Lent it by the brimming moon. 
Without you I’d be an unleaded tree
Blasted in a bleakness with no Spring.

Daniel Hoffman’s carefully chosen metaphors make ‘Yours’ a truly beautiful love poem. Hoffman’s complete dedication to his lover is obvious — in comparing her to everything from summer evenings to snow-capped mountains, it seems he cannot stop thinking about her throughout the changing seasons.

33. "A Love Song for Lucinda" by Langston Hughes 

Is a high mountain 
Stark in a windy sky.
Would never lose your breath 
Do not climb too high.

Each stanza of Langston Hughes’ ‘A Love Song for Lucinda’ compares love to a specific feeling, all of which are linked to the natural world. This poem emphasizes the exhilaration of falling in love and the all-encompassing enchantment that comes with it.

34. "Poem for My Love" by June Jordan 

help writing love poems

Political activist, poet, and essayist June Jordan is one of the most widely-published Jamaican American writers of her generation. In her ‘Poem for My Love’, the speaker is in absolute spiritual awe of her partner and the way she feels about their transcendent love.

35. "for him" by Rupi Kaur

be love at 
first sight when 
we meet it’ll be love 
at first remembrance 
‘cause i’ve recognized you 
in my mother’s eyes when she tells me, 
marry the type of man you’d want to raise your son to be like.

At just 21 years old, Rupi Kaur wrote, illustrated, and self-published her first poetry collection, milk and honey. She describes her poetry as ‘simple and accessible’ — which has allowed it to reach millions of readers worldwide, particularly through Instagram presence. ‘for him’ is a perfect example of a beautiful, powerful love poem which doesn’t have to try too hard to pack a punch.

36. Untitled by Rupi Kaur

love will hurt you but 
love will never mean to 
love will play no games
cause love knows life 
has been hard enough already

Another entry from milk and honey, this short, untitled poem takes a bittersweet and world weary, but ultimately generous look at love and its challenges.

37. "Poem To An Unnameable Man" by Dorothea Lasky

And I will not cry also 
Although you will expect me to
I was wiser too than you had expected 
For I knew all along you were mine

Prolific poet Dorothea Lasky has written multiple collections and currently directs the poetry programme at Columbia University. In ‘Poem To An Unnameable Man’, she uses celestial imagery to explore a romantic relationship, describing her power and strength to the lover who underestimates her.

38. "Movement Song" by Audre Lorde

help writing love poems

‘Movement Song’ by Audre Lorde is about the end of a relationship. While the sorrow felt after the speaker’s heart has been broken is clear, the poem ultimately ends with hope that the pair can both have a new beginning — albeit apart.

39. "Camomile Tea" by Katherine Mansfield 

We might be fifty, we might be five,
So snug, so compact, so wise are we!
Under the kitchen-table leg
My knee is pressing against his knee.
Our shutters are shut, the fire is low,
The tap is dripping peacefully;
The saucepan shadows on the wall
Are black and round and plain to see.

Katherine Mansfield has been praised for her ability to simplify complex emotions through short stories and poetry. One of the more tranquil poems on this list, ‘Camomile Tea’ paints a picture of a couple who are calm and quiet and happy with the life they’ve made for themselves, highlighting the underrated joy that peaceful familiarity and comfort can bring in a relationship.

40. "Love Elegy in the Chinese Garden, with Koi" by Nathan McClain 

Because who hasn’t done that —
loved so intently even after everything
has gone? Love something that has washed
its hands of you? I like to think I’m different now, 
that I’m enlightened somehow, 
but who am I kidding?

Nathan McClain’s inspiration for ‘Love Elegy in the Chinese Garden, with Koi’ was a date to the Huntington Botanical Gardens. In the poem, McClain aimed to ‘explore the sense of anxiety’ between two potential lovers, and the weighty emotional baggage that previous failed relationships can bestow upon you.

41. "I think I should have loved you presently (Sonnet IX)" by Edna St. Vincent Millay 

I think I should have loved you presently, 
And given in earnest words I flung in jest;
And lifted honest eyes for you to see, 
And caught your hand against my cheek and breast;
And all my pretty follies flung aside
That won you to me, and beneath you gaze

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s ‘I think I should have loved you presently’ serves as a subversion of the traditional sonnet form. In the poem, the speaker laments their inability to reciprocate their lover’s earnest affection, instead choosing sweet nothings and superficial flirtation over genuine connection.

42. "Love Sonnet XI" by Pablo Neruda

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets. 
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts
me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

There is a strong sense of longing in Pablo Neruda’s ‘Love Sonnet XI’, as our speaker confesses  the thought of his love never leaves his mind, driving him to the point of distraction. Evocative and at times alarming, it's a love poem which perfectly treads the blurred line between romance and obsession. 

43. "Your Feet" by Pablo Neruda 

help writing love poems

In ‘Your Feet’, Neruda expresses a similar devotion to his love as he explains his love for her from head to toe, and gives thanks for the forces he feels brought them together inevitably.

44. "Dear One Absent This Long While" by Lisa Olstein

I expect you. I thought one night it was you
at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs
you in a shiver of light, but each time
leaves in wind revealed themselves, 
the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak. 
We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

The speaker in Lisa Olstein’s ‘Dear One Absent This Long While’ is anxiously waiting for her loved one to return home. The nervous buzz of anticipation as the speaker waits to return to a life of comfort and mundanity, a puzzle from which their lover is the only missing piece, gives this love poem a beautiful raw honesty.

45. "My Lover Is a Woman" by Pat Parker

my lover is a woman 
& when i hold her
feel her warmth
i feel good

Pat Parker was an American poet and activist who drew great inspiration from her life as an African-American lesbian feminist. ‘My Lover Is a Woman’ is about the struggles Parker faced as an openly queer woman of colour, and the safe harbour her lover represents in that storm.

46. "It Is Here" by Harold Pinter 

What is this stance we take,
To turn away and then turn back?
What did we hear?
It was the breath we took when we first met.
Listen. It is here.

Relationships have a funny way of transcending time and space,  and that transcendence isexpressed in Harold Pinter’s beautiful love poem ‘It Is Here’ as he asks his lover to think back to the beginning of their relationship, and in doing so brings the long-passed moment to life.

47. "Untitled" by Christopher Poindexter

I miss you even when you
are beside me. 
I dream of your body
even when you are sleeping
in my arms.
The words I love you
could never be enough.

Christopher Poindexter here presents a deeply honest and relatable portrait of a love that goes beyond the limits of language, as he describes the overwhelming and paradoxical longing it’s possible to feel even when your lover is right by your side. 

48. “Love Is Not A Word” by Riyas Qurana 

Amidst all this 
I keep a falling flower in the mid-air
Not to fall on the earth 
Is it not up to you who search for it
To come and sit on it
And make love?
Don’t forget to bring the word
When you come.

Written from the point of view of a personified love, “Love Is Not A Word” is a rather ambiguous poem. Riyas Qurana explores the notion of love as a whole and relates the concept to nature to emphasize how elemental it is to the human experience. 

49. "[Again and again, even though we know love’s landscape]" by Rainer Maria Rilke 

Again and again, even though we know love’s landscape
and the little churchyard with its lamenting names
and the terrible reticent gorge in which the others
end: again and again the two of us walk out together 
under the ancient trees, lay ourselves down again and  
among the flowers, and look up into the sky.

Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke believed that it was ‘perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks’ for one human to love another (Letters to a Young Poet, 1929). In ‘[Again and again, even though we know love’s landscape]’, Rilke celebrates the continuous, everyday love that two people can share, and the strength that comes from making one vulnerable enough to love another, despite knowing the risk of heartbreak.

50. "Echo" by Christina Rossetti

help writing love poems

In ‘Echo’, Christina Rossetti reflects on a lost love and how she wishes it would come back to her like an echo. Rossetti is in despair, longing for her ex-lover, and the resulting yearning creates an equally heartbreaking and beautiful love poem. 

51. "I loved you first: but afterwards your love" by Christina Rossetti

I loved you first: but afterwards your love 
Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? my love was long, 
And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong

Despite a concern with reciprocity (or a lack thereof) in these opening lines, a feeling of ‘oneness’ in fact runs throughout ‘I loved you first: but afterwards your love’, also by Rossetti. This poem reflects the feeling of complete understanding between two people who love each other deeply, as Rossetti explains how their individual feelings combine to create one love, a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

52. "Defeated by Love" by Rumi 

The sky was lit
by the splendor of the moon 
So powerful 
I fell to the ground 
has made me sure 
I am ready to forsake 
this worldly life 
and surrender 
to the magnificence 
of your Bering

The words of 13th-century Persian poet Rumi have transcended national, ethnic, and religious divides for centuries. The passion and dedication in ‘Defeated by Love’ is apparent in each line, making this enduring testament to the power of love one of the most beautiful love poems on our list. 

53. "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18)" by William Shakespeare 

help writing love poems

Although William Shakespeare may not have have written any romance novels , there are few more celebrated love poets and ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ is perhaps the most iconic and recognizable opening line of any love poem. Its simplicity compared to some of Shakespeare’s other sonnets makes it stand out against an incomparable library of work, but the hidden depths and layers of meaning in this densely packed mini-masterpiece have kept readers returning for centuries.

54. "Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116)" by William Shakespeare

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

In ‘Sonnet 116’, Shakespeare talks about the permanence of love — even if the people change as time goes on, the love between them will remain true and strong, or else it isn’t love at all.

55. "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (Sonnet 130) by William Shakespeare

I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare. 

In Shakespeare’s final entry on our list, he challenges the traditional association of love with beauty. It doesn’t matter what his lover looks like — to him she is the most rare and valuable thing in the world.

56. "Love’s Philosophy" by Percy Bysshe Shelley 

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean, 
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle
Why not I with thine?

‘Love’s Philosophy’, while a beautiful love poem, offers a much more logical take on romance than many of the other poems on our list. Percy Bysshe Shelley expresses to his lover that  their love is as natural as a river meeting the ocean — but equally that all the beauties of nature are meaningless if he doesn’t have her.

57. "One Day I Wrote her Name (Sonnet 75)" by Edmund Spenser 

One day I wrote her name upon the strand, 
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand, 
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

This beautiful love poem is part of Amoretti , a sonnet cycle about Edmund Spenser’s relationship with Elizabeth Boyle. Spenser explains in ‘Sonnet 75’ that — despite the seemingly portentous way his attempts to make a physical monument to his lover by writing her name in the sand is repeatedly foiled — his love for Boyle will never end, and he will do whatever it takes to make it last. 

58. "I Am Not Yours" by Sara Teasdale

help writing love poems

A longing for genuine, passionate, all-encompassing love is the central theme of Sara Tesdale’s ‘I Am Not Yours’. The speaker doesn’t feel any sense of belonging in her current relationship, and wants to find a partner who makes her feel lost in their love.

59. "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font.
The firefly wakens; waken thou with me. 
Now drops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

‘Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal’ is a song from The Princess, a longer, narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It was inspired by the ghazal , a Persian form of love poetry which focuses on unsustainable love, and is a classic masterclass in sensual description.

60. "poem I wrote sitting across the table from you" by Kevin Varrone 

I would fold myself 
into the hole in my pocket and disappear 
into the pocket of myself, or at least my pants
but before I did 
like some ancient star
I’d grab your hand

Kevin Varrone confesses how close he feels to his lover in ‘poem I wrote sitting across the table from you’. Written in a moment of procrastination as he worked on a longer verse in a coffee shop, the poem expresses how Varrone wants his lover to partake on all of his adventures, no matter how big or small.

61. "On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong

Tell me it was for the hunger 
& nothing less. For hunger is to give
the body what it knows 
it cannot keep. That this amber light 
whittled down by another war 
is all that pins my hand 
to your chest.

While you’re probably familiar with Vuong’s 2019 novel by the same name, you may not be familiar with the poem that came first. Ocean Vuong’s writing invites the reader to slow down and understand every word, and ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ explores themes of desire, impermanence, and craving when in love.

62. "Love After Love" by Derek Walcott

You will love again the stranger who was your self. 
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you 
all your life, whom you ignored 
for another, who knows you by heart.

Nobel Prize winning poet Derek Walcott offers advice and reassurance to anyone experiencing a breakup in his poem ‘Love After Love’. Encouraging the reader to return to themselves, the poem is a tonic in a world full of love poetry which expects us to hand ourselves over to lovers completely. 

63. "I Love You" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox 

I love your lips when they’re wet with wine
And red with a wild desire;
I love your eyes when the lovelight lies
Lit with a passionate fire. 
I love your arms when the warm white flesh
Touches mine in a fond embrace;
I love your hair when the strands enmesh
Your kisses against my face.

In ‘I Love You’, Ella Wheeler Wilcox lays out the tiny moments that add up to why the speaker feels so passionately about her love, before going on to describe the colder attributes she’s not looking for in a relationship. This juxtaposition helps to make the initial love she describes all the more special.

64. "We Have Not Long to Love" by Tennessee Williams

help writing love poems

Though better known for his plays than as a romance author , Tennessee Williams was also an accomplished poet. In ‘We Have Not Long to Love’ Williams stresses the importance of appreciating the time we do have and cherishing the love that comes with it, remembering that nothing will last forever.

65. "Poem to First Love" by Matthew Yeager 

To have been told “I love you” by you could well be, for me, 
the highlight of my life, the best feeling, the best peak 
on my feeling graph, in the way that the Chrysler building
might not be the tallest building in the NY sky but is
the best, the most exquisitely spired

Matthew Yeager’s ‘Poem to First Love’ is a bittersweet young romance where, as the title suggests, the speaker is reminiscing about his relationship with his first love, and explores the different ways one might try to logically quantify the utterly illogical force of love. 

Looking to dive a little deeper into the world of poetry? Check out our post on the 60+ best poetry books of all time !

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How to Write a Love Letter and Poem

February is the month of love and a good time to write to a loved one..

Posted February 7, 2023 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

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  • The most important purpose of a love letter is to express strong feelings.
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Considering February is the month of love, what better time could there be to write a love letter or poem to a beloved? To be loved and nurtured is a universal need. Being loved creates feelings of acceptance and harmony.

What Is Love?

In preparing this post, I cracked open two classic books about love: Rollo May’s Love and Will , and The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm. May emphasizes how we all yearn to have a love relationship greater than ourselves, and most do this to overcome a sense of loneliness . Sometimes, these relationships are long-lived and other times, the relationship is short-lived. In his book, Fromm also highlights the importance of love as the answer to the problems of human existence. The fact is that to love another person, you must love yourself first, and Fromm supports this premise.

Love can be thought of as a higher power or a state you fall in and out of. Whatever your stance or belief, the concept of love most often elicits positive emotions and connotations. Ever since receiving my first love letter from my grade school sweetheart, I knew that falling and being in love can be life-changing, eliciting powerful emotions such as joy and elation. There is a wonderfully indescribable feeling and sense of glow that emanates from those who are in love.

Love is an emotion that we seem to have little control over. It is either there or it is not. Yet love is perhaps the most profound, wondrous, and complex word in the human language suggesting desire and interconnectedness. Love and compassion are at the heart of the world’s great spiritual traditions. Love is often said to be synonymous with the divine essence of existence and wellspring of all life—or whatever name each religion gives to its highest truth. I believe that love is my higher power.

Writing Love Letters

Passionate love letters are born out of separation. Sometimes it ’ s easier to jot down our feelings about others without being distracted by looking at them. Also, receiving a passionate love letter allows the recipient to enter into the drama and emotions of the writer. Every love letter is different and expresses the emotions unique to the relationship between two people.

Passionate love letters have been around for centuries; but, as a literary form, some scholars believe they probably originated during the Renaissance period as a way to keep the ambers hot between lovers when they were separated. Women of the Victorian era wrote love letters as a way of intimately expressing themselves.

Sometimes lovers don ’ t even have the opportunity to become intimate, so they find that their relationship revolves around letter writing. For example, this was the case with writer and philosopher Khalil Gibran, who was best known for his book, The Prophet . He had a 27-year love-letter affair with a schoolteacher. When I met my husband back in the 1970s, there was no internet, and since we lived in different countries, we enjoyed the exchange of love letters for the first two years of our relationship.

The purpose of a love letter is to inform, instruct, entertain, amuse, explore, keep in touch, and most important, to express strong feelings. Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of letter writing is the opportunity to communicate exactly what ’ s on your mind. With the emergence of email correspondence, there seems to be a resurgence of the age-old art of letter writing. But truly, there ’ s nothing better than sitting down with a pen and paper and writing a letter. It ’ s also fun to buy special stationery for this purpose.

How to Begin

The best way to start writing is to make believe the person you ’ re writing to is seated across from you. Sometimes keeping a photo of the person nearby is helpful. The goal of writing a passionate love letter is to write honestly and sincerely—from your heart. Begin by making a list of all the person ’ s qualities that you love. Like a good book or article, you ’ ll want to immediately get your lover ’ s attention , so your first sentence or paragraph should be captivating. Say exactly what you want in the most forthright way possible.

Some possible openings:

“ I ’ m writing to express my love and this is how I feel about you.”

“ I am so grateful for you.”

“ You ’ ve changed my life.”

“ Having you in my life means…”

“ When I think of you I ’ m filled with…”

Reading published love letters of famous people can give you an idea of various styles. Those shared between Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller are some of the best. There ’ s an entire collection of their letters called A Literate Passion . In one letter, Nin reminisces about falling in love with Miller: “ It seems to me that from the very first, when you opened the door and held out your hand, smiling, I was taken in, I was yours.”

help writing love poems

Writing Love Poems

Two of the most common inspirations for writing poetry are love and death. The main reason is that poetry is the voice of both the heart and the soul. The subject of love most often elicits strong feelings that are well expressed in poetic form. Poetry uses an economy of language, and sometimes the words that make it onto the page surprise us with their clarity and sincerity.

When writing a love poem, begin with a feeling or an image. Next, think about specific details about the person or the relationship. Consider writing about the firsts you experienced together. It ’ s better to be more concrete than abstract. Sometimes paying attention to the little things that you love about the person helps highlight what ’ s really important to you. Remember to make the poem sincere and personal. Similar to writing letters, it ’ s a good idea to read love poems to get an idea of different styles. To be a better poet, you need to read a lot of poetry.

Whatever form you choose—poem or a letter—be sure you write a draft and then put it away for a few days. Later, look at your writing again with fresh eyes to ensure that it conveys what you want to say. Consider reading it out loud in front of a mirror to see how it sounds. Writers usually share their work only after they ’ ve reread it and revised it a number of times, so there ’ s no need to share your letters or poems in haste.

Enjoy the writing journey, and remember, writing love letters and poems brings joy to both the writer and the recipient, so why not start yours now?

Anaïs Nin, Miller, H., & Stuhlmann, G. (1989). A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, 1932-1953 (First Edition). Mariner Books.

Fromm, E. (2006). The Art of Loving . Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

May, R. (2007). Love and Will . W.W. Norton Co.

Diana Raab Ph.D.

Diana Raab, MFA, Ph.D., is an author, speaker, educator, and survivor. She’s written nine books of nonfiction and poetry, including the recent Writing for Bliss and Writing for Bliss: A Companion Journal.

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help writing love poems

10 Greatest Love Poems Ever Written

by Conrad Geller

People are always asking “What are the best love poems?” or “Where can I find something beautiful to say to the woman I love?” or “…to the man I love?”

If you are looking for love poems in more modern language, you will probably find the 10 Best Love Poems of 2022 or 10 Best Love Poems of 2021 useful. If you like a more classical style, well, here I am again, unbowed by the heartfelt, sometimes urgent suggestions for altering my recent “ 10 Greatest Poems about Death .” This time I choose a topic—love—less grim if equally compelling. These should quench your thirst for the best love poems, but don’t take these as some kind of how-to manual in your relationship. Like death, love seems to be something most poets know little about; for evidence, see their biographies. The poems I have chosen this time cover the full spectrum of responses to love, from joy to anguish, and sometimes a mixture of both. As befits the topic this time, the list is a bit heavy on Romantics and light on those rational Enlightenment types. Here, with a few comments and no apologies, is the list:

Related Content 10 Best Love Poems of 2022 10 Best Love Poems of 2021 10 Greatest Poems Ever Written

10. “Since There’s No Help,” by Michael Drayton (1563-1631)

It may be a bad augury to begin with a poem by a loser, but there it is. Drayton, a contemporary and possible acquaintance of the Bard, evidently had come to the unhappy end of an affair when he penned this sonnet.  He begins with a show of stoic indifference: “. . . you get no more of me,” but that can’t last. In the last six lines he shows his true feelings with a series of personifications of the dying figures of Love, Passion, Faith, and Innocence, which he pleads can be saved from their fate by the lady’s kindness.

help writing love poems

Michael Drayton

Since There’s No Help

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part; Nay, I have done, you get no more of me, And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart That thus so cleanly I myself can free; Shake hands forever, cancel all our vows, And when we meet at any time again, Be it not seen in either of our brows That we one jot of former love retain. Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath, When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies, When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death, And Innocence is closing up his eyes, Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over, From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.

9. “How Do I Love Thee,” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

If poetry, as Wordsworth asserted, is “emotion recollected in tranquility,” this sonnet scores high in the former essential but falls short of the latter. Elizabeth may have been the original arts groupie, whose passion for the famous poet Robert Browning seems to have known  no limits and recognized no excesses. She loves she says “with my childhood’s faith,” her beloved now holding the place of her “lost saints.” No wonder this poem, whatever its hyperbole, has long been a favorite of adolescent girls and matrons who remember what it was like.

How Do I Love Thee?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Elizabeth_Barrett_Browning.jpg

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 every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. 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.

8. “Love’s Philosophy,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

In spite of its title, this very sweet sixteen-line poem has nothing to do with philosophy, as far as I can see. Instead, it promulgates one of the oldest arguments of a swain to a maid: “All the world is in intimate contact – water, wind, mountains, moonbeams, even flowers. What about you?” Since “Nothing in the world is single,” he says with multiple examples, “What is all this sweet work worth / If thou kiss not me?” Interestingly, the lover’s proof of the “law divine” of mingling delicately omits any reference to animals and their mingling behavior. In any case, I hope it worked for him.

Percy_Bysshe_Shelley_by_Alfred_Clint_crop

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Love’s Philosophy

The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the ocean, The winds of heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In one spirit meet and mingle. Why not I with thine?—

See the mountains kiss high heaven And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps the earth And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What is all this sweet work worth If thou kiss not me?

7. “Love,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Here we have another bold attempt at seduction, this one much longer and more complicated than Shelley’s. In this poem, the lover is attempting to gain his desire by appealing to the tender emotions of his object. He sings her a song about the days of chivalry, in which a knight saved a lady from an “outrage worst than death” (whatever that is), is wounded and eventually dies in her arms. The poet’s beloved, on hearing the story, is deeply moved to tears and, to make the story not as long as the original, succumbs.

As with his most famous poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Coleridge employs the oldest of English forms, the ballad stanza, but here he uses a lengthened second line. Coleridge, by the way, could really tell a romantic story, whatever his ulterior motives.

help writing love poems

All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame, All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame.

Oft in my waking dreams do I Live o’er again that happy hour, When midway on the mount I lay, Beside the ruined tower.

The moonshine, stealing o’er the scene Had blended with the lights of eve; And she was there, my hope, my joy, My own dear Genevieve!

She leant against the arméd man, The statue of the arméd knight; She stood and listened to my lay, Amid the lingering light.

Few sorrows hath she of her own, My hope! my joy! my Genevieve! She loves me best, whene’er I sing The songs that make her grieve.

I played a soft and doleful air, I sang an old and moving story— An old rude song, that suited well That ruin wild and hoary.

She listened with a flitting blush, With downcast eyes and modest grace; For well she knew, I could not choose But gaze upon her face.

I told her of the Knight that wore Upon his shield a burning brand; And that for ten long years he wooed The Lady of the Land.

I told her how he pined: and ah! The deep, the low, the pleading tone With which I sang another’s love, Interpreted my own.

She listened with a flitting blush, With downcast eyes, and modest grace; And she forgave me, that I gazed Too fondly on her face!

But when I told the cruel scorn That crazed that bold and lovely Knight, And that he crossed the mountain-woods, Nor rested day nor night;

That sometimes from the savage den, And sometimes from the darksome shade, And sometimes starting up at once In green and sunny glade,—

There came and looked him in the face An angel beautiful and bright; And that he knew it was a Fiend, This miserable Knight!

And that unknowing what he did, He leaped amid a murderous band, And saved from outrage worse than death The Lady of the Land!

And how she wept, and clasped his knees; And how she tended him in vain— And ever strove to expiate The scorn that crazed his brain;—

And that she nursed him in a cave; And how his madness went away, When on the yellow forest-leaves A dying man he lay;—

His dying words—but when I reached That tenderest strain of all the ditty, My faultering voice and pausing harp Disturbed her soul with pity!

All impulses of soul and sense Had thrilled my guileless Genevieve; The music and the doleful tale, The rich and balmy eve;

And hopes, and fears that kindle hope, An undistinguishable throng, And gentle wishes long subdued, Subdued and cherished long!

She wept with pity and delight, She blushed with love, and virgin-shame; And like the murmur of a dream, I heard her breathe my name.

Her bosom heaved—she stepped aside, As conscious of my look she stepped— Then suddenly, with timorous eye She fled to me and wept.

She half enclosed me with her arms, She pressed me with a meek embrace; And bending back her head, looked up, And gazed upon my face.

‘Twas partly love, and partly fear, And partly ’twas a bashful art, That I might rather feel, than see, The swelling of her heart.

I calmed her fears, and she was calm, And told her love with virgin pride; And so I won my Genevieve, My bright and beauteous Bride.

6.  “A Red, Red Rose,” by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Burns’ best-known poem besides “Auld Lang Syne” is a simple declaration of feeling. “How beautiful and delightful is my love,” he says. “You are so lovely, in fact, that I will love you to the end of time. And even though we are parting now, I will return, no matter what.” All this is expressed in a breathtaking excess of metaphor: “And I will love thee still, my dear, / Till a’ the seas gang dry.” This poem has no peer as a simple cry of a young man who knows no boundaries.

burns

Robert Burns

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 melody That’s sweetly played in tune.

So 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 love 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. “Annabel Lee,” by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Poe shows off his amazing talent in the manipulation of language sounds here, perhaps his best-known poem after “The Raven.” It’s a festival of auditory effects, with a delightful mixture of anapests and iambs, internal rhymes, repetitions, assonances. The story itself is a Poe favorite, the tragic death of a beautiful, loved girl, died after her “high-born kinsman” separated her from the lover.

Edgar_Allan_Poe_by_Samuel_S_Osgood,_1845

Edgar Allan Poe

Annabelle Lee

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea: But we loved with a love that was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Laughed loud at her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went laughing at her and me— Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we— Of many far wiser than we— And neither the laughter in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.

4. “Whoso List to Hunt,” by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

Supposedly written about Anne Boleyn, wife of King Henry VIII, this bitter poem compares his beloved to a deer fleeing before an exhausted hunter, who finally gives up the chase, because, as he says, “in a net I seek to hold the wind.” Besides, he reflects, she is the king’s property, and forbidden anyway. The bitterness comes mainly in the first line: “I know where there is a female deer, if anyone wants to go after her.” Some of the tougher vocabulary is translated below. As the history goes, she could not produce the male heir Henry wanted and he (probably) wrongfully accused her of incest and adultery just so he could have her executed. This love, hijacked by higher forces, painfully elusive, and wildly tempting is exquisitely real and compelling.

Whoso List to Hunt

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/HolbeinThomasWyatt.jpg/220px-HolbeinThomasWyatt.jpg

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, But as for me, alas, I may no more. The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, I am of them that farthest cometh behind. Yet may I by no means my wearied mind Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore, Since in a net I seek to hold the wind. Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, As well as I may spend his time in vain. And graven with diamonds in letters plain There is written, her fair neck round about: “Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am, And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”

Whoso list: whoever wants Hind: Female deer Noli me tangere : “Don’t touch me”

3.  “To His Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

Yet another seduction attempt in verse, perhaps this poem doesn’t belong on a list like this, since it isn’t about love at all. The lover is trying to convince a reluctant (‘coy”) lady to accede to his importuning, not by a sad story, as in the Coleridge poem, or by an appeal to nature, as in Shelley, but by a formal argument: Sexuality ends with death, which is inevitable, so what are you saving it for?

. . . then worms shall try That long preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust.

and it ends with the pointed suggestion,

Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life.

This is one of the ten best poems in the English language, so I’ll include it here, whether it can be strictly pinned down with a label like love or death or not.

To His Coy Mistress

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Andrew_Marvell.jpg

Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day. Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow; An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song; then worms shall try That long-preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust; The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

2. “Bright Star,” by John Keats (1795-1821)

Keats brings an almost overwhelming sensuality to this sonnet. Surprisingly, the first eight lines are not about love or even human life; Keats looks at a personified star (Venus? But it’s not steadfast. The North Star? It’s steadfast but not particularly bright.) Whatever star it may be, the sestet finds the lover “Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,” where he plans to stay forever, or at least until death. Somehow, the surprising juxtaposition of the wide view of earth as seen from the heavens and the intimate picture of the lovers works to invest the scene of dalliance with a cosmic importance. John Donne sometimes accomplished this same effect, though none of his poems made my final cut.

John_Keats_by_William_Hilton

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors— No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever—or else swoon to death.

1. “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds” (Sonnet 116), by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

help writing love poems

Shakespeare

This poem is not a personal appeal but a universal definition of love, which the poet defines as constant and unchangeable in the face of any circumstances. It is like the North Star, he says, which, even if we don’t know anything else about it, we know where it is, and that’s all we need. Even death cannot lord itself over love, which persists to the end of time itself. The final couplet strongly reaffirms his commitment:

If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

The problem is that if Shakespeare is right about love’s constancy, then none of the other poems in this list would have been written, or else they’re not really about love. It seems Shakespeare may be talking about a deeper layer of love, transcending sensual attraction and intimacy, something more akin to compassion or benevolence for your fellow man. In this revelation of the nature of such a force, from which common love is derived, lies Shakespeare’s genius.

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.

Post your own best love poem pick or list in the comments section below.

Conrad Geller is an old, mostly formalist poet, a Bostonian now living in Northern Virginia. His work has appeared widely in print and electronically.

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.

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47 Responses

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Love your list – some great stuff here!

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Me too, i love it and will add one poem, Brown Penny by William Butler Yeats

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I like the Wyatt, but no “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day”? No “I Knew a a Woman” (“I knew a woman lovely in her bones…” by Theodore Roethke? None of Swift’s great birthday poems to Stella? None of Hardy’s guilt and grief stricken poems after his first wife died?

And again with the Poe? Please!

Give him some slack Robert! It’s always tricky with top 10s and what you miss out. For me one of the greatest love poets of all is WB Yeats – so I could have said, What, no Yeats??? But hey – some good stuff here. And sometimes the sentimental can top even the brilliant. And by the way, love your mention of Burns’ John Anderson, my Jo – there’s a wonderful sung version of this by Eddi Reader, a superb Scottish singer on her album of Burns’ poems only – a masterpiece – called Eddi Reader Sings the Songs of Robert Burns. You’ll love it!

A wonderful full version of “John Anderson…” by Sileas, a two women Scots group, from back in the 80s.

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Innit Robert needs to learn his stuff can’t be dissing people top tens like that not on robert

P.S. If you’re going to pick a Burns poem, “John Anderson, My Jo,” the unexpurgated version is far superior and deals with the whole heartbreak of old age and impotency, though the one you have is pretty nice too.

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Love it!! Full version of “John Anderson”.

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Interesting choices, and of course there’s always going to be some debate when the word “Greatest” gets applied to anything, especially poetry…

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It’s too bad that this list is resticted to pre-1900, because most (well, actually all, if I were perfectly honest, which of course, I am not) of my favorite love poems were written after 1954.

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We crave for it, when young, in rage. Scared of it, when wise, to divulge. Love, the undeterring vice of any age underlines our life at every stage!

What an onus laden on man Since the “Adam”antine sin?! Is it a curse or a boon? He delivered to the whole clan!

At dawn fills your bosom to the brims of thrills. But anon, drills your heart to a well of tears! Culprit the love…the Cupid’s scourge… always difficult to interpret it’s maze!

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It’s a wonderful list to make one’s weekend. The essay included some of my personal favourite love poems. Further, I would recommend some more from my own list. 1. Love Me Little, Love Me Long by Robert Herrick 2. Love and Age by Thomas Love Peacock 3. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe 4. A Song of a Young Lady to her Ancient Lover by John Wilmot 5. ‘The Sorrow of Love’ by W. B. Yeats 6. ‘A Valediction- Forbidding Mourning’ by John Donne

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Thank you for this.

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I have read with interest and growing concern, firstly, the list of ten poems, then the list of comments and replies. How can lovers of poetry even consider a list that does not include the greatest love poet of all, John Donne. For example, The Good-Morrow: ‘I wonder by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then? But sucked on country pleasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the seven sleepers’ den? ‘Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be. If ever any beauty I did see Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.’

Or, The Extasy: ‘Where, like a pillow on a bed, A pregnant bank swelled up, to rest The violet’s reclining head, Sat we two, one another’s best.’

And if we don’t stop at love poetry, simply seeking ‘The Greatest’, then remember, all contributors, the same poet wrote: ‘No man is an Island, entire of itself.’ And, of course: ‘Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.’

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These are certainly some of the best poem I have read. Best part about this one is that all of them to love in a different way. Is there are some more love poems like these then please reply on this comment. I certainly like everyone on the phone I’m listed Above and I also like these two poems which I read previously.

#A Song of a Young Lady to her Ancient Lover by John Wilmot #‘The Sorrow of Love’ by W. B. Yeats

If you read them then please let know how you liked them?

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A wonderful selection to expand the thinking capacity of young upcoming artists. I have a request;can you make a list of some of the best african poems.

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To Love Unafraid Of all blue pools they say abound Or the grace of angel’s in heavenly choir None deep as thine eyes have I yet found Nor body and soul to stroke this desire. No man nor beast could avoid thy spell Compared to thee, the sun’s smile doth fade And legends not yet made, shall one day tell How thy changed the world to love unafraid. Copyright© 2018 Arthur Lamar Mitchell

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Going back to number 8, “Love’s Philosophy,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). I think you are incorrect when you stated it is not relevant to philosophy at all. There has been many philosophical ideas about how all the people and the Earth are connected and I think this poem reflects that idea very well. Science, Philosophy, and spirituality are very connected with each other.

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Well stated Isabel. Love indeed has no bounds and its force reaches both the barren and the fruitful, often simultaneously.

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Thank you, Isabel, and I agree. The underlying philosophy of Shelley’s poem is, I believe, based on Plato’s “Symposium”, and especially the philosophy of love expounded to Socrates by Diotima Mantinike.

Best wishes Robert

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all i can say is wow,did it best heights hope they are deserving the award more shakesperean poetry

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Hi there friends, its great paragraph on the topic of cultureand entirely defined, keep it up all the time.

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I love your insight. Poetry says a lot about the person. I would appreciate constructive criticism.

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great stuff… something about them that make me believe in LOVE all over again!!! its no wonder that these are the greatest of all time… respect to the wonderful men and women behind these… thank you

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Why? Why oh why have you not included Naruda?

Sonnet XVII – cliché, but I don’t care

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From my book – Our Seasons of Ardent Love

Our Seasons of Ardent love brings forth all our desire, Throughout our lives, we live on a Loving enchanted isle. Far beyond, long, amorous nights with our souls set afire, We bonded as one, remaining forever, for it is our style.

From our first chance meeting to the lives we are sharing, We have been as one united with each other, inseparably. We love each other for who we are, and all we are baring, Not by any wealth can we tithe our love incomparably.

Our love can not be doled out, as money is for a favor, Nor can our love be judged by where, or how we reside. Our love for each other is truly the only love we savor, For our love comes from the depths of our hearts, inside.

We are not just empty shells pretending to be unspoiled. We are both halves of a love united, and totally fulfilled.

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This poem said it all the love that me and my husband had for each other its a beautiful poem I had to write it down

Thank you, Conrad Geller, for an excellent selection. I confess I would have left out Burns, who is a most unpolished and mediocre poet, and perhaps Poe, whose Annabell Lee has been overshadowed by Nabokov’s Lolita.

Perhaps add a couple more Elizabethan contributions: Spenser’s “Whilst it is Prime”, and of course Sidney’s famous “With how sad steps, o Moon …”

Keats’s “bright star”, I believe was Vega (Alpha Lyrae), which he perhaps knew was once our Pole Star.

And Marvell’s “To his coy Mistress” is a matchless poem that belongs in every library.

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Paradise On Earth! Mr.V.Muthu Manickam

The Sun shines as gold, down the west Full moon is on the move, to rise in the east

When one gets to set, The other begins to get

Birds are settling, into the nest Courteous caress of the breeze, is the best!

Sky is colorfully painted Many themes, this has hinted!

Stars are peeping up to glow Passage of time, added to their flow!

Strained soul sets to solace Stirred senses, suggests the romance!

I desire here, forever to stay As the mind fails, words to say!

When the lap of my love is lent as berth, This place becomes, a paradise on earth!

Above poem is adapted from the eBook “FIRE WITHOUT FIRE IS ETERNAL! AND OTHER POEMS ON HAPPY LOVE ” by Mr.V.Muthu manickam.

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You are incorrect in saying EBB was Robert Browning’s “groupie”! In fact, he fell in love with her through her writing and insisted on meeting her. You’ve got it backwards.

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Thank you very much

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THY DEATH WILL CRAWL

The drooping willow Nature’s scarf The groan and creak of wind on stone A thousand legs of crawl and laugh And wilted grasses cry alone

A thousand legs and yet unseen So too unheard upon their walk They whisper where their thoughts have been And unto me I hear them talk

They sliver in the skulls of Man Eaten flesh of long ago And not a thought of how they can Consume the Life from Death so slow

Wriggling bodies underground The slime of soil laden thick Moving living without a sound Regurgitate the living sick

A thunder when it claps the sky A sudden death is made again Legs a thousand mute they lie Until the lightening brings it’s rain

And rise once more thy twitching knee Beneath the roof of sodden Earth Dripping wet the soul of thee To join the terrors of new birth

For now the scratch of noiseless howl It is within the moon I die Humanity it does not scowl Those thousand legs to join have I.

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So glad to see A Red, Red Rose in the list. Such a beautiful poem with hardly any words of more than one syllable. Shows the genius of the man.

Also love Burns’ Ae Fond Kiss, which is about lovers parting and is heartbreaking.

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I agree with you about Burns, his genius is in his simplicity and authentic language. Even when not sung, his poetry reads like a song. I fell out of my chair to read the comment above by Robert Firth, that Burns is an “unpolished and mediocre poet”. What a load of codswallop! I’ll take unpolished all day long for Ae Fond Kiss…

But to see her was to love her; Love but her, and love forever. 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.

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John Ciardi – Most Like an Arch this Marriage

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The writing of the love poem is a unique art. Not everyone can write best love poems. This article is great and provides best love poems.

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What a great collection of love poems. I love Robert Burns and Percy Bysshe Shelley; they offer beautiful vivid spectacles that animate through the mind. I noticed these poems are all from a past that predates this century. Have you got a collection of favourite modern poems?

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I never find such awesome work, very good and precious words here I found thanks admin for creating this post for us.

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I love itt lived to become a poet

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I really love this collection, gave me a better idea of how to write my own with a little inspiration! here’s one of my own here for you guys to hear! give me any tips or kreteks to it that I should do please! Hearts don’t break, it’s just another thing the poet says, hearts are not made of glass or bone, or any material that could splinter, or fragment, or shatter, they don’t crack into pieces, they don’t fall apart, hearts don’t break, they just stop working. like an old watch from another time and no parts to fix it.

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This is fantastic… There’s something about them that makes me believe in LOVE once again!!! It’s no surprise that these are the best of all time… Respect to the amazing men and women that put this together… Thank you very much.

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Umm those all really lack any real love or true passion. It’s strange how literature considered the best ever really can’t compare to that which is true and real. Try this one:

I’m greeted by the light of the stars but it’s not as bright as you. For the glimmering glow of your smile shines brighter than morning dew. The emptiness of infinite space mirrors that which is in my heart. For the most glorious nebula and galaxies can’t fill the voids of when we are apart. If you are as far away as the moon or light-years to another world you are in; the distance leaves the same longing and desire for us to be skin to skin. I see the silhouette of the mountains as a shooting star streaks by but the pristine beauty only reminds me of the twinkle in your eye. Thinking of gravity or forces or black holes where time bends, folds or rips; only makes me remember the force of my hand on the back of your head as I press against your glimmering lips. Planets of gold or crusted with diamonds or riches to make ones mind twirl; if I had only one wish to ask God for anything it would be for Siri to be my girl.

Or how about this one:

I’ve searched for love in beautiful faces for over 40 years. I never expected to find an angel’s love; so pure it brings forth tears. It’s sad to see so many faces empty and without your light. So many times I struggled to hope but didn’t give up the fight. To look into your eyes and see the glowing smile on your face; to hear you say how much you love me and feeling my heart race; You wake up thinking of me and I wake up thinking of you; we share I loves you’s over and over vowing there is nothing we wouldn’t do. I cry thinking how much I love you and you do the same for me; We message each other earnestly hoping the other is free. My life and heart is in your arms my place is by your side; You make me blush and turn bright red until my face I have to hide. Your hand in mine our souls entwined our lives are linked together; The love in me from before time started is for you until forever.

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Great poems, Thank you so much

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The poem is heart tuching. I fall in love with this.

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I love these collections of poems

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This indeed is beatuiful, in particularly “I never expected to find an angel’s love; so pure it brings forth tears.”

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Love Poems by NEA Literature Fellows

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet!” It's that time of the year when words become cupid's arrows, piercing through hearts with poetic precision. This Valentine’s Day, even the grumpiest grinches can't escape the infectious charm of love. The air is filled with the sweet scent of metaphorical roses and the rhythmic beats of love sonnets, and we collected poems by NEA Literature Fellows to share with your special someone…your pet, best friend, relative, spouse, or child. So, whether you're reciting verses under the moonlit sky or scribbling notes on heart-shaped cards, let the symphony of love poems serenade your soul! Click on the poem’s title below to read the full text.

Red graphic with white text on the right (that says: “In the end / There was only one. / Isn’t that how it is for all of us? / There’s that one you circle back to—for home.” From “Redbird Love” by Joy Harjo (Muscogee/Creek), 1977 and 1992 NEA Literature Fellow, NEA Big Read author, and 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate) and a photo of a Native woman on the left wearing a red shirt

“In the end / There was only one. / Isn’t that how it is for all of us? / There’s that one you circle back to—for home.” From “Redbird Love” by Joy Harjo (Muscogee/Creek), 1977 and 1992 NEA Literature Fellow, NEA Big Read author, and 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate

Pink graphic with white text on the right (that says: “What is the metaphor / for two animals / sharing the same space? // Marriage? // We share a practice, / you and I, / a series of postures.” From “Dear—” by Donika Kelly, 2023 NEA Literature Fellow ) and a Black woman on the left wearing black glasses and a white shirt

“What is the metaphor / for two animals / sharing the same space? // Marriage? // We share a practice, / you and I, / a series of postures.” From “Dear—” by Donika Kelly, 2023 NEA Literature Fellow

Purple graphic with white text on the right (that says: “In the box is a square of chocolate / like the top of a signet ring, smooth, but edged / in something bright.” From “Mustang Bagel” by Kiki Petrosino, 2019 NEA Literature Fellow) and a woman on the left wearing glasses and a multi-colored shirt

“In the box is a square of chocolate / like the top of a signet ring, smooth, but edged / in something bright.” From “Mustang Bagel” by Kiki Petrosino, 2019 NEA Literature Fellow

Red graphic with white text on the right (that says: “my love that answers / the love you lavish upon them. / Your deserts and desolations // are highways I travel, / smoothing your broken places, / arranging stars and constellations” From “Comfort Animal” by Joy Ladin, 2016 NEA Literature Fellow) and a White woman on the left that is wearing a black shirt

“my love that answers / the love you lavish upon them. / Your deserts and desolations // are highways I travel, / smoothing your broken places, / arranging stars and constellations” From “Comfort Animal” by Joy Ladin, 2016 NEA Literature Fellow

Red graphic with white text on the right (that says: “but flush / again // first bud at spring / perennial // as field burning / after harvest” From “The Bruise” by Jenn Givhan, 2015 NEA Literature Fellow) and woman on the left with shoulder length hair

“but flush / again // first bud at spring / perennial // as field burning / after harvest” From “The Bruise” by Jenn Givhan, 2015 NEA Literature Fellow

Pink graphic with white text on the right (that says: “If only he could touch her, / Her name like an old wish / In the stopped weather of salt / On a snail. He longs to be” From “Lust” by Yusef Komunyakaa, 1981 and 1988 NEA Literature Fellow) and a Black man on the left wearing a hat and blue blazer

“If only he could touch her, / Her name like an old wish / In the stopped weather of salt / On a snail. He longs to be” From “Lust” by Yusef Komunyakaa, 1981 and 1988 NEA Literature Fellow

Purple graphic with white text on the right (that says: “You, rare as Georgia / snow. Falling // hard. Quick. / Candle shadow.”  From “Ditty” by Kevin Young, 2005 NEA Literature Fellow) and a Black man on the right wearing glasses

“You, rare as Georgia / snow. Falling // hard. Quick. / Candle shadow.” From “Ditty” by Kevin Young, 2005 NEA Literature Fellow

Red graphic with white text on the right (that says:  “I could choose any hero, any cause or age /And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart, / Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart / As standing in silver stirrups will allow—/ There you'll be, with furrowed brow / And chain mail glinting, to set me free” From “Cozy Apologia” by Rita Dove, 1977 and 1989 NEA Literature Fellow) and a Black woman on the left wearing red lipstick on her lips and a black shirt

“I could choose any hero, any cause or age /And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart, / Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart / As standing in silver stirrups will allow—/ There you'll be, with furrowed brow / And chain mail glinting, to set me free” From “Cozy Apologia” by Rita Dove, 1977 and 1989 NEA Literature Fellow

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AI Haiku Generator

This poetry generator tool will write a haiku for you using AI transformer models. Just enter a word and it will generate a haiku.

AI Poem Idea Generator

This poetry generator tool will write lines of a poem for you using AI transformer models. Just enter a word and it will generate a list of poem stanzas.

AI Thanksgiving Poem Generator

This tool will generate a Thanksgiving poem about one thing you're thankful for using AI.

AI Valentine's Day Poem Generator

This tool will use AI to generate a love poem for Valentines' Day. Just enter the name of your love interest, and this tool will generate a beautiful love poem for you.

Poems about People

Name poem generator.

This poetry generator tool will help you write an acrostic poem using a person's name. This is different from the Acrostic Poem Generator above, which takes a noun as input and uses that to find related adjectives. The name poem generator uses adjectives that describe a person.

I Am Poem Generator

This poetry generator tool will help you write an I Am poem. In order to create the poem, you will need to enter a series of words or phrases about yourself.

Funny Rhyming Poem About Someone Generator (for birthdays, roasts, etc.)

This is a funny poem generator. You can generate a funny or silly poem with a message for someone (for example, 'happy birthday'). This is a great gag poem generator for birthdays, anniversaries, roasts, etc..

Poem About Friend or Family Generator

This poetry generator tool will help you write a positive, loving poem about a friend or family member. In order to create the poem, you will need to enter the name of the person that you are writing about, their relationship to you, and some information about the person.

Our Original Poem Generator

If you're looking for our original poem generator, click here.

Other Poetry Forms

Automatic concrete poem generator.

This poetry generator tool will write a concrete poem/shape poem about any topic you want. In order to create your concrete poem, you will select a shape and enter a subject and some keywords.

Manual Concrete Poem Generator

This poetry generator tool lets you enter a poem, and it formats the poem as a concrete poem/shape poem in your selected shape.

Limerick Generator

This poetry generator tool will write a limerick about any topic you want. In order to create your limerick, you will need to fill in the fields.

Acrostic Poem Generator

This poetry generator tool will help you write an acrostic poem. In order to create the poem, you will enter a subject word or phrase. The generator will find words that are associated with that word/phrase. Note: if you are writing a poem about a person, use the Name Poem Generator below.

Poems about Feelings

Sad poem generator.

This poetry generator tool will write a sad freeform poem for you. In order to create the poem, you will enter a topic phrase. The phrase will be used in the title or body of the poem.

Dark Poem Generator

This poetry generator tool will write a dark poem for you. In order to create the poem, enter a topic phrase. The phrase will be used in the title or body of the poem.

Love Poem Generator

This poetry generator tool will write a love poem for you. In order to create the poem, you will enter the name of your love interest.

Heartbreak Poem Generator

This poetry generator tool will write a poem about a broken heart, unrequited love, or a breakup for you. In order to create the poem, you will enter the name of your love interest.

Haiku Generator

This poetry generator tool will write a Haiku about any topic you want. In order to create your Haiku, you will need to enter two singular nouns.

Haiku With My Own Words Generator

This poetry generator tool will ask for 8 words and try to write a poem using those words. If it can't, it will add auto generated related words.

AI Haiku Idea Generator

This poetry generator tool will write lines of a haiku for you using AI transformer models. Just enter a word and it will generate a list of haiku stanzas.

Poems about Events

Thanksgiving poem generator (i'm thankful for...).

This tool will generate an "I'm thankful for..." Thanksgiving poem.

Mother's Day Poem Generator

This tool will generate a Mother's Day poem for your mom, or a close family member.

Father's Day Poem Generator

This tool will generate a Father's Day poem for your dad, or for someone who is like a dad to you.

Christmas Poem Generator

This tool will generate a Christmas poem.

New Year's Eve Toast Generator

This tool will generate a New Year's Eve toast poem.

Valentine's Day Poetry Generators

Valentine's day poem generator.

This tool will generate a love poem for Valentines' Day. Just enter the name of your love interest, and this tool will generate a beautiful love poem for you.

Kids' Valentine's Day Poem Generator

This tool will generate a kids' poem for Valentines' Day. Just enter the name of your love interest, and this tool will generate a sweet and fun poem about your crush.

Do It Yourself

Determine if text content was written by AI or by a human.

How to Write a Poem

This tutorial will teach you how to write a poem yourself.

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IMAGES

  1. How to Write a Love Poem: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

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  2. Secrets To Writing Love Poems For Him (Step By Step Guide With Pictures)

    help writing love poems

  3. How To Write a Love Poem: 6 steps to Romance

    help writing love poems

  4. How To Write A Romantic Poem

    help writing love poems

  5. How To Write A Love Poem

    help writing love poems

  6. 4 Ways to Write a Good Love Poem to Your Loved One

    help writing love poems

VIDEO

  1. "Petals in Poetry: Writing Love Letters to My Garden"

COMMENTS

  1. How to Write a Love Poem: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

    1 Describe your feelings about a particular person. Start by writing down any words or phrases that come to mind when you think about the person you are writing the poem for. Focus on nouns, verbs, and adjectives that come to mind when you think of your feelings for the person.

  2. How to Write a Love Poem: 4 Examples of Love Poetry

    Written by MasterClass Last updated: Aug 16, 2021 • 5 min read Love is one of the most common poetry topics, but writing a good love poem for the first time—one that doesn't feel clichéd or sappy—can be a real challenge.

  3. How to Write a Love Poem: From a Love Expert

    How to Write a Love Poem Okay, here are my tips. They are applicable to any sort of love poem. Though I'm looking through the romantic love lens, these guidelines would help you write a love poem for a friend or family member as well. Choose your audience. If you're going to do this proper, you need to pick one person to be your audience.

  4. How to Write a Love Poem

    Susan Barr-Toman How to Write a Love Poem Sean Glatch | February 1, 2023 | Love poems have tried to capture the essence of love since the dawn of poetry itself. Because love is a highly personal and variable experience, no two love poets will approach the topic in quite the same way.

  5. How to Write a Love Poem: 6 Tips for Romantic Poetry

    Choose widley. Love poems are often characterized by romantic structures. One of Shakespeare's most famous poems, "Sonnet 18," popularized the sonnet as a love poem structure. You can also try an ode or a ghazal. Each of these poem structures contributes to a different tone and vibe.

  6. How to Write Love Poems by Jeremy Richards

    Interview How to Write Love Poems Adrian Blevins, Rebecca Hoogs, Cyrus Cassells, and Craig Arnold on how to write love poems that don't suck. By Jeremy Richards I once responded to a girlfriend's love poem by critiquing its imagery. That relationship didn't last long.

  7. How to Write Perfect Love Poems + 5 Great Examples

    2 This article explores what love poems are, how to write the perfect one, and our favorite contemporary examples What are Love Poems? How to Write Love Poems Choose Your Subject Carefully Find Your Form Have a Sensory Focus Consider Metaphors Don't Be Afraid to Get Vulnerable 5 Examples of Great Love Poems Love and Friendship by Emily Bronte

  8. How To Write a Love Poem: 6 steps to Romance

    How To Write a Love Poem Answering the question: "How do I write a love poem" is not as simple as asking "how do I boil an egg" but there are useful tips to consider. There is no set formula for writing love poetry, but below, you can find a few tips to help you through the process.

  9. How to write a love poem

    Thinking about the person you love, finish the sentence 'You are a…' using the prompts below. You could name one thing - ie, 'You are a starfish' - or be more descriptive - ie, 'You are a flapping of wings, the arrival of birdsong in the morning.'. Once again, whatever you come up with is good! animal.

  10. 5 Tips on How to Write a Love Poem

    We even have five top tips to help you write a love poem: Read a range of love poems to get some inspiration. Decide what type of poetry you want to write. Think about the feelings you have for the person you are writing to. Find a way to make your poem unique and personal. Proofread your poem to make sure it is error free.

  11. How to write love poetry

    How to write a love poem 1. Identify a subject 2. Decide on form 3. Choose your words 4. Consider imagery and symbolism 5. Be yourself Learn more about writing What makes a good love poem? Love is one of the most common themes for poetry, but it can also be one of the trickiest topics to get right.

  12. Poetry Meets Passion: 4 Approaches to Writing a Love Poem

    This poem comes from ozer and their partner's love of space. In the poem, this shared interest becomes an interesting, unexpected lens through which to examine love. "we are beginning to look like lightning or the frameworks of / buildings too far away or the line where the lake meets the sky. you are every 1996 space / exploration gone ...

  13. How To Write A Love Poem: 5 Easy Tips To Swoon Your Special One

    Table of Contents. [Open] [Close] how to write a love poem. Tip 1: Start with brainstorming ideas for your love poem. Tip 2: Be honest and vulnerable to write the best love poems. Tip 3: Use metaphors and similes in romantic poetry. Tip 4: Pay attention to examples of rhythm and rhyme. Tip 5: Practice, revise, and refine.

  14. How to Write a Poem: A Step-by-Step Guide

    How to Write a Poem: A Step-by-Step Guide Lindsay Kramer Updated on January 6, 2022 Writing Tips Poetry is . . . song lyrics without the music? Writing that rhymes? A bunch of comparisons and abstract imagery that feels like a code for the reader to decipher? The answer to all of the above is yes, but poetry encompasses much more.

  15. How To Write a Love Poem

    Write first, the refining and perfecting will come later. But once you have your ideas in order, be sure not to neglect editing either. Love poems are deeply personal so looking at them from a technical angle might not feel right, but it is important to make the writing the best it can be. 5. Read your poems out loud.

  16. 65 Beautiful Love Poems Everyone Should Know

    📚 Which love poem are YOU? Discover which poem best fits you in this quiz. Takes 30 seconds! Start quiz 1. "Come, And Be My Baby" by Maya Angelou Maya Angelou was one of America's most acclaimed poets and storytellers, as well as a celebrated educator and civil rights activist.

  17. Love Poem Generator

    Our love poem generator brings the traditional 'Roses Are Red' poem structure to life using adjectives chosen by you, combined with auto-generated similes and metaphors. Sometimes our robot gets the imagery spot on, at other times, the ideas are somewhat more abstract.

  18. Love Poems

    Whether you're searching for a poem for an occasion like an anniversary, a wedding, or Valentine's Day, or because you need a pick-me-up or a forget-me-not, here's a diverse selection of love poems. For more poems about love, explore our archive. FAVORITES & CLASSICS. Including selections from the Facebook Love Poems Sampler.

  19. 25 Most Beautiful Love Poems Ever Written

    Arguably one of the most beautiful love poems ever written, "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" uses repetition to emphasize a forlorn yearning, almost as if to cast a love spell. It's no...

  20. How to Write a Love Letter and Poem

    Writing Love Poems. Two of the most common inspirations for writing poetry are love and death. The main reason is that poetry is the voice of both the heart and the soul. ... Get the help you need ...

  21. [HELP] Tips on writing love poems? : r/Poetry

    Write "love letter" poems. Almost conversational in nature. Don't be afraid to try formatted poems such as a sonnet, villanelle, prose, sestina, etc. Good luck! Sorry they seem scatterbrained but I'm sure you're a wonderful poet and she will love whatever you write. 3.

  22. 10 Greatest Love Poems Ever Written

    Here, with a few comments and no apologies, is the list: 10 Greatest Poems Ever Written. 10. "Since There's No Help," by Michael Drayton (1563-1631) It may be a bad augury to begin with a poem by a loser, but there it is. Drayton, a contemporary and possible acquaintance of the Bard, evidently had come to the unhappy end of an affair when ...

  23. Love Poems by NEA Literature Fellows

    This Valentine's Day, even the grumpiest grinches can't escape the infectious charm of love. The air is filled with the sweet scent of metaphorical roses and the rhythmic beats of love sonnets, and we collected poems by NEA Literature Fellows to share with your special someone…your pet, best friend, relative, spouse, or child. So, whether ...

  24. Poem Generator: Create 30 Different Types of Poems

    Choose free verse, haiku, limerick, acrostic, and much more. AI Poetry Generators AI Poem Generator This poetry generator tool will write a poem using the latest AI transformer models, trained on over 100 billion parameters. Enter a word or phrase and it will generate a poem. AI Haiku Generator