- Short |
- Heart-Melting |
- Deep |
- Passionate |
- Cute |
- Famous |
- Long Distance |
- Writing a Love Poem |
- Why Send a Love Poem
This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook
and by wikiHow staff writer, Sophie Burkholder, BA
. 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 40 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.
Roses are red, violets are blue, if you’re looking for a love poem, we’ve got one for you! In fact, we have more than one—in the list below, we have over 55 tear-jerking, passionate, and beautiful love poems (that are much better than the one we just recited to you). Whether you want to send your wife or gf a heart-melting poem for her birthday, Valentine’s Day, or just ‘cause (our favorite reason), any of the incredibly romantic poems below are sure to blow her away. Plus, we’ve included expert tips on how to write your own love poem from professional writer and poet Alicia Cook.
What is the most romantic love poem ever written?
One of the most famously romantic poems is “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, starting with: “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.” Read the rest of the poem here .
Steps
Short & Romantic Love Poems for Her
-
1“Let us be true” by Matthew Arnold Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night. [1] X Research source -
2“Love Comes Quietly” by Robert Creeley Love comes quietly,
finally, drops
about me, on me,
in the old ways.
What did I know
thinking myself
able to go
alone all the way. [2] X Research sourceAdvertisement -
3“Love is anterior to life” by Emily Dickinson Love is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath. [3] X Research source -
4“Love is Enough” by William Morris Love is enough: though the world be a-waning,
And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,
Though the sky be too dark for dim eyes to discover
The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,
Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder,
And this day draw a veil over all deeds passed over,
Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter;
The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter
These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover. [4] X Research source -
5“Why I Love Thee?” by Sadakichi Hartmann Why I love thee?
Ask why the seawind wanders,
Why the shore is aflush with the tide,
Why the moon through heaven meanders;
Like seafaring ships that ride
On a sullen, motionless deep;
Why the seabirds are fluttering the strand
Where the waves sing themselves to sleep
And starshine lives in the curves of the sand! [5] X Research source -
6“Close Your Eyes” by Elizabeth Smith Close your eyes and think of me
Close your eyes and try to see
Our hearts together and what could be
Our love forever as destiny. -
7“Ode” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems. [6] X Research source -
8“Mythologise You” by Anonymous I’ve fallen in love, a fallible godA religion of stuff that’s made upJust chemicals—skin, fat, and bonesI’ve never known something so wholeI’ve never known what I couldn’t explain at all.You’re too good to meYou’re too good to be true.
Heart-Melting Love Poems for Her
-
1“For Keeps” by Joy Harjo Sun makes the day new.
Tiny green plants emerge from earth.
Birds are singing the sky into place.
There is nowhere else I want to be but here.
I lean into the rhythm of your heart to see where it will take us.
We gallop into a warm, southern wind.
I link my legs to yours and we ride together,
Toward the ancient encampment of our relatives.
Where have you been? they ask.
And what has taken you so long?
at night after eating, singing, and dancing
We lay together under the stars.
We know ourselves to be part of mystery.
It is unspeakable.
It is everlasting.
It is for keeps. [7] X Research source -
2“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 mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent! [8] X Research source -
3“When You Are Old” by W.B. Yeats When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars. [9] X Research source -
4“Give Away” by Louis Ginsberg Love that is hoarded moulds at last
Until we know some day
The only thing we ever have
Is what we give away. -
5“your cologne” by Ben Maxfield your cologne
smelled like
the rest of
my life -
6“first love” by Rupi Kaur you might not have been my first love
but you were the love that made
all other loves seem
irrelevant [10] X Research source -
7“[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
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky [11] X Research source -
8“When I Die I Want Your Hands On My Eyes” by Pablo Neruda When I die I want your hands on my eyes:
I want the light and the wheat of your beloved hands
to pass their freshness over me one more time
to feel the smoothness that changed my destiny.
I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep,
I want for your ears to go on hearing the wind,
for you to smell the sea that we loved together
and for you to go on walking the sand where we walked.
I want for what I love to go on living
and as for you I loved you and sang you above everything,
for that, go on flowering, flowery one,
so that you reach all that my love orders for you,
so that my shadow passes through your hair,
so that they know by this the reason for my song. [12] X Research source
Deep Love Poems for Her
-
1“When You Come” by Maya Angelou When you come to me, unbidden
Beckoning me
To long-ago rooms,
Where memories lie.
Offering me, as to a child, an attic,
Gatherings of days too few.
Baubles of stolen kisses.
Trinkets of borrowed loves.
Trunks of secret words,
I cry. [13] X Research source -
2“I’ll plant a row of daisy seeds” by Erin Hanson I'll plant a row of daisy seeds,
In the space below each eye,
So they'll remind you of your beauty,
When they bloom each time you cry. [14] X Research source -
3“I will love you” by Christopher Poindexter I will love you,
Not starting with
Your skin or
Your organs or
Your bones:
I will love madly first
Your naked soul. [15] X Research source -
4“If ever we shall perish” by R.M. Broderick If ever we shall perish
and become but specks
of dust, I hope the wind
carries us away to that
place you've always loved. -
5“love is a place” by e.e. cummings love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds [16] X Research source -
6“Poem for My Love” by June Jordan How do we come to be here next to each other
in the night
Where are the stars that show us to our love
inevitable
Outside the leaves flame usual in darkness
and the rain
falls cool and blessed on the holy flesh
the black men waiting on the corner for
a womanly mirage
I am amazed by peace
It is this possibility of you
asleep
and breathing in the quiet air [17] X Research source -
7“A Memory of Us” by Safia Elhillo when i think of us i think of the lakewater
near longtown, what might not technically
constitute a lake but i prefer that word for
the open mouth of its vowel, how it called
us to its throat & held us there, in the sun,
the high points of our faces slick with light
& its arc around our shoulders, the soft
gathering of flesh around our knees,
the lone chair we found near the shore
where we took turns posing, jutting out
an eloquent hip, cackling in the bright language
of flowers for whom i downloaded an app
& learned their names: beautyberry, yarrow,
cornus florida, black-eyed susan, & you,
& you, my bright hibiscus, my every color [18] X Research source -
8“One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII” by Pablo Neruda I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams. [19] X Research source -
9“Then” by Roddy Lumsden For the first time, I listen to a lost
and secret recording of us
making love near-on ten years ago.
I recognize your voice, your sounds,
though if I knew no better,
I could be any man in any room.
After, the rising sounds of rising
and of dressing and once
as you step up close to the deck
perhaps to pick up shoes, you sing
the chorus of Sunday Morning.
I call on you to hurry and we leave.
It does not end then; the tape rolls on.
A few late cars which sigh by
might have passed us walking away
triumphant, unaware we’ve left behind
this mop and mow mechanism
of silence to which we may never return. [20] X Research source
Passionate Love Poems for Her
-
1“On Love” by Kahlil Gibran Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips. [21] X Research source -
2“Song to Celia” by Ben Jonson Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I’ll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove’s nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honoring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be;
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent’st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee. [22] X Research source -
3“Passing Time” by Maya Angelou Your skin like dawn
Mine like musk
One paints the beginning
of a certain end.
The other, the end of a
sure beginning. [23] X Research source -
4“Song (‘Love has crept…’)” by D. H. Lawrence Love has crept into her sealed heart
As a field bee, black and amber,
Breaks from the winter-cell, to clamber
Up the warm grass where the sunbeams start.
Love has crept into her summery eyes,
And a glint of colored sunshine brings
Such as his along the folded wings
Of the bee before he flies.
But I with my ruffling, impatient breath
Have loosened the wings of the wild young sprite;
He has opened them out in a reeling flight,
And down her words he hasteneth.
Love flies delighted in her voice:
The hum of his glittering, drunken wings
Sets quivering with music the little things
That she says, and her simple words rejoice. [24] X Research source -
5“The Language” by Robert Creeley Locate I
love you some-
where in
teeth and
eyes, bite
it but
take care not
to hurt, you
want so
much so
little. Words
say everything.
I
love you
again,
then what
is emptiness
for. To
fill, fill.
I heard words
and words full
of holes
aching. Speech
is a mouth. [25] X Research source -
6“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;
I loved and guessed at you, you construed me
And loved me for what might or might not be –
Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.
For verily love knows not ‘mine’ or ‘thine;’
With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done,
For one is both and both are one in love:
Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine;’
Both have the strength and both the length thereof,
Both of us, of the love which makes us one. [26] X Research source -
7“Recreation” by Audre Lorde Coming together
it is easier to work
after our bodies
meet
paper and pen
neither care nor profit
whether we write or not
but as your body moves
under my hands
charged and waiting
we cut the leash
you create me against your thighs
hilly with images
moving through our word countries
my body
writes into your flesh
the poem
you make of me.
Touching you I catch midnight
as moon fires set in my throat
I love you flesh into blossom
I made you
and take you made
into me. [27] X Research source -
8“[Lying in bed I think about you]” by Joshua Beckman Lying in bed I think about you,
your ugly empty airless apartment
and your eyes. It’s noon, and tired
I look into the rest of the awake day
incapable of even awe, just
a presence of particle and wave,
just that closed and deliberate
human observance. Your thin fingers
and the dissolution of all ability. Lay
open now to only me that white body,
and I will, as the awkward butterfly,
land quietly upon you. A grace and
staying. A sight and ease. A spell
entangled. A span. I am inside you.
And so both projected, we are now
part of a garden, that is part of a
landscape, that is part of a world
that no one believes in. [28] X Research source
Cute Love Poems for Her
-
1“She had the most beautiful thing I had ever seen” by Atticus She had the most beautiful thing that I had ever seenShe had the most beautiful thing that I had ever seenAnd it took only her laugh to realizethat beauty was the least of her.
-
2“Courage” by N.R. Hart You love with everything
you have...
not everyone possesses
that kind of courage. -
3“In all the world there is” by Maya Angelou In all the world there is
no heart for me like yours.
In all the world there is
no love for you like mine. [29] X Research source -
4“I would love to say” by Tyler Knott Gregson I would love to say
that you make me
weak in the knees,
but
to be quite upfront,
and completely
truthful,
you
make my body forget
it has knees
at all. [30] X Research source -
5“new year’s eve” by Jessica Katoff baby, you are my
new year's eve,
the beginning and end
of everything. -
6“let love” by Alison A. Malee let love
kiss your palm.
tuck it into
your back pocket
or some other
safe place.
let it stay. -
7“A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me. [31] X Research source -
8“i love you to the moon &” by Chen Chen not back, let’s not come back, let’s go by the speed of
queer zest & stay up
there & get ourselves a little
moon cottage (so pretty), then start a moon garden
with lots of moon veggies (so healthy), i mean
i was already moonlighting
as an online moonologist
most weekends, so this is the immensely
logical next step, are you
packing your bags yet, don’t forget your
sailor moon jean jacket, let’s wear
our sailor moon jean jackets while twirling in that lighter,
queerer moon gravity, let’s love each other
(so good) on the moon, let’s love
the moon
on the moon [32] X Research source
Famous Love Poems for Her
-
1“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.
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. [33] X Research source -
2“Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” by W.B. Yeats Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. [34] X Research source -
3“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
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering 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. [35] X Research source -
4“Love Poem” by Audre Lorde. Speak earth and bless me with what is richest
make sky flow honey out of my hips
rigis mountains
spread over a valley
carved out by the mouth of rain.
And I knew when I entered her I was
high wind in her forests hollow
fingers whispering sound
honey flowed
from the split cup
impaled on a lance of tongues
on the tips of her breasts on her navel
and my breath
howling into her entrances
through lungs of pain.
Greedy as herring-gulls
or a child
I swing out over the earth
over and over
again. -
5“A Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow–
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand–
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep–while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! Can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream? [36] X Research source -
6“Sonnet 29” by William Shakespeare Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. [37] X Research source -
7“Bright Star” by John Keats Bright star, would I were steadfast 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 steadfast, 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. [38] X Research source -
8“Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?” 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 dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. [39] X Research source -
9“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.
I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.
I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,
and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue. [40] X Research source
Long Distance Love Poems for Her
-
1“Echo” by Carol Ann Duffy I think I was searching for treasures or stonesin the clearest of poolsWhen your face . . .when your face,like the moon in a wellwhere I might wish…Might well wishfor the iced fire of your kiss;only on water my lips, where your face…where your face was reflected, lovely,not really there when I turnedto look behind at the emptying air…the emptying air.
-
2“I carry your heart with me” 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) I fear
No fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart) [41] X Research source -
3“Lying next to you” by Aurora Raine Lying next to you
or three hundred miles away,
I am yours
just the same. -
4“I want to” by Christopher Poindexter I want to
travel the world
with you.
Make love
in new cities.
I want to be new
with you. -
5“A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns 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. [42] X Research source -
6“A-” by Samuel Menashe A-
round
my neck
an amu-
let
Be-
tween
my eyes
a star
A
ring
in my
nose
and a
gold
chain
to
Keep me
where
You
are
* [43] X Research source -
7“Dear One Absent This Long While” by Lisa Olstein It has been so wet stones glaze in moss;
everything blooms coldly.
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.
In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires
over which young men and women leapt.
June efforts quietly.
I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall
so even if spring continues to disappoint
we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.
I have new gloves and a new hoe.
I practice eulogies. He was a hawk
with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs
of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.
Yours is the name the leaves chatter
at the edge of the unrabbited woods. [44] X Research source
How to Write Your Own Love Poem for a Wife or Girlfriend
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1Think about the person you’re writing about and the ideas you associate with them. If you’re writing this poem for a significant other, then you want to start by picturing this person in your mind. Consider what feelings their image brings up for you and how you want to show love through your poem. If helpful, draw a mind map or jot down some ideas that arise as you think of this person. What color do you see around them? What smells or sensations do they make you think of? What feelings do they inspire in you? These initial images can help you to create a foundation for your poem. [45] X Research source
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2Choose a poetic form to write in and decide on a rhyme scheme or rhythm. “There are numerous ways to format poems,” says Cook. “There’s no black-and-white way that you must format your poem, so that’s really up to you as the creator. You could do the standard metered and rhymed poetry. There are haikus. You can do freeform or free verse poetry. Right now, in contemporary poetry, free-form and free verse seem to be the most popular. They don’t need to rhyme, but they can rhyme.”
- In her poetry, Cook uses “random rhythm, regular rhythm, alternating rhythm, flowing rhythm, or progressive rhythm…Rhythm is closely associated with meter, which identifies units of stressed and unstressed syllables. So the reader is reading it in that rhythm almost subconsciously…Within that [rhythm] is how you shape your rhymes.”
- “I use internal rhymes sometimes,” continues Cook. “Not all rhyming poetry needs to end on a rhyme. The rhymes can be internal, meaning they can be in the middle of poems as well.”
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3Carefully select your words, including imagery and symbolism. When it comes to writing the actual content of the poem, it’s important to intentionally use words with meaning and purpose. Some of the most romantic (and tear-jerking) love poems use heightened language (like hyperbole and exaggerated statements) to convey the heightened emotions that come out of love. You can also choose to include words and phrases that evoke a specific image or symbol. For instance, Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 18 employs a simile when comparing the subject of the poem to “a summer’s day.” [46] X Research source
- If you’re struggling to come up with good imagery, go back to your initial brainstorm. Tap into each of your five senses. When you think of your love, what do you see, smell, hear, taste, or feel?
- Most of all, however, be authentic with your word choice. If you’re not someone who would use overly-flowery or academic language in real life, don’t use it in your poem. Your wife or girlfriend will be much more moved by a poem that sounds like the voice of the person they love…which is you!
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4Title your poem appropriately. Give your poem a one-line title that sums up the main message of the text. You could also choose your favorite line or word in the poem and use that as the title. “If you’re really stuck on naming a poem,” advises Cook, “show the poem to a trusted colleague or friend and say, ‘What pops out at you with that poem?’ And they might insert their own experience, but it tells us of a different point of view that might make a title click.”
- Cook also mentions that she likes to “title poems in a way that adds another line to the poem. So [her] titles are usually one word or two, but sometimes they could be longer and actually take the poem in itself to a whole other level.”
Why should you send a love poem to your partner?
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Sending a love poem allows you to express deep emotions in a unique and special way. Poetry is one of the oldest and most romantic art forms, and it’s able to convey feelings and emotions that we might not be able to express in other ways. Whether you write your own love poem or choose a well-known one to send to the special lady in your life, that gesture will show her that you appreciate her, are thinking of her, and feel a depth of love for her that can’t be stated in simple, everyday words. [47] X Research source
- Sharing poetry can also strengthen the intimate connection between two people, revealing a newfound vulnerability and allowing for a shared experience of emotion and love.
Expert Q&A
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References
- ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2230-ah-love-let-us-be-true-to-one-another-for
- ↑ https://poets.org/poem/love-comes-quietly
- ↑ https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/EmilyDickinson/ma00167-14-48-00612
- ↑ https://poets.org/poem/love-enough
- ↑ https://poets.org/poem/why-i-love-thee
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54933/ode-
- ↑ https://www.pcc.edu/harts/2020/10/06/two-deep-breaths-a-weekly-poem-to-lift-your-spirits-and-help-you-catch-your-breath/
- ↑ https://parade.com/living/love-poems
- ↑ https://parade.com/living/love-poems
- ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9571192-you-might-not-have-been-my-first-love-but-you
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/22224/love-is-more-thicker-than-forget
- ↑ https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3885&context=thesesdissertations
- ↑ https://onlyart.org/poets/maya-angelou/when-you-come/?srsltid=AfmBOoqwoe7eD55-lo_y5Wrc0rym7aZnRGveMU74uzxsexh551yOORCO
- ↑ https://parade.com/living/love-poems
- ↑ https://hellopoetry.com/words/poindexter/
- ↑ https://poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-motion/love-is-a-place
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49218/poem-for-my-love
- ↑ https://worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/black-voices/memory-us-safia-elhillo
- ↑ https://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/ceremony-and-reception/wedding-poems/
- ↑ https://poemanalysis.com/roddy-lumsden/then/
- ↑ https://poets.org/poem/love-8
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44464/song-to-celia-drink-to-me-only-with-thine-eyes
- ↑ https://sites.evergreen.edu/culturaltourism2024/wp-content/uploads/sites/761/2024/05/CollaborativeWork.Poems_-1.pdf
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13003/song-love-has-crept
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49024/the-language-56d22abc283f2
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50507/i-loved-you-first-but-afterwards-your-love
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42579/recreation
- ↑ https://www.aqreview.org/aqr-vol-23-number-1-and-2-spring/summer-2006/poetry
- ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/301012-in-all-the-world-there-is-no-heart-for-me
- ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/677663-i-would-love-to-say-that-you-make-me-weak
- ↑ https://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/ceremony-and-reception/wedding-poems/
- ↑ https://poets.org/poem/i-love-you-moon
- ↑ https://poets.org/poem/how-do-i-love-thee-sonnet-43
- ↑ https://poets.org/poem/aedh-wishes-cloths-heaven
- ↑ https://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/ceremony-and-reception/wedding-poems/
- ↑ https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/147/the-works-of-edgar-allan-poe/5270/a-dream-within-a-dream/
- ↑ https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/read/29/
- ↑ https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/poemofthemonth/2011/03/13/bright-star-by-john-keats/
- ↑ https://shakespeare.mit.edu/Poetry/sonnet.XVIII.html
- ↑ http://www.phys.unm.edu/~tw/fas/yits/archive/neruda_lovesonnet11.html
- ↑ https://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/ceremony-and-reception/wedding-poems/
- ↑ https://parade.com/living/love-poems
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51414/a
- ↑ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48139/dear-one-absent-this-long-while
- ↑ https://www.bbcmaestro.com/blog/how-to-write-love-poetry
- ↑ https://www.bbcmaestro.com/blog/how-to-write-love-poetry
- ↑ https://news.miami.edu/stories/2022/02/speaking-of-love-poetry-gets-to-the-heart-of-it.html