When you can’t find the perfect words to say, “I Love You” to that special man in your life, why not give him a poem. Any one of these 10 famous love poems is the perfect answer. Use a blank card and add the poem that fits best for that special occasion or simply say I love you. You can also copy, paste, and print your favorite poem right from one of these poems and put it on his dinner plate tonight or on his pillow at bedtime.
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived from March 6, 1806 – June 29, 1861. In the Victorian era, Elizabeth was an English poet. She was popular while she was alive and in the United States and Britain.
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She was the oldest child of 12. In her adulthood, she secretly married the poet Robert Browning who she met through her poetry. Her father disapproved and disinherited her. Her first poem was published in 1838 in a collection of poetry and included The Seraphim. She wrote, How Do I Love Thee? in 1850 for her husband.
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of 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.
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
E. E. Cummings, whose real name was Edward Estlin Cummings, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 14, 1894. He had one sister. His father was a well-known minister and a professor at Harvard University. His parents were supportive of his writing, which he began at a very early age.
E. E. Cummigs is well known for his poetry writing in lower case for a greater impact on his works. I Carry Your Heart With Me was published in 1953 for the one he loved. Although it was written for his female love, it also fits any love.
By E. E. Cummings
[I Carry Your Heart With Me(I Carry It In]
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)
Yours
Daniel Hoffman was married to Elizabeth McFarland, also a well-known poet, for fifty-seven years. Hoffman served in many poetry societies and received numerous awards for his contribution to the world of poetry.
When Daniel actually wrote the poem Yours is unsure but it was found and published in 2013.
By Daniel Hoffman
Yours
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 unleafed tree
Blasted in a bleakness with no Spring.
Your love is the weather of my being.
What is an island without the sea?
To My Dear and Loving Husband
Anne Bradstreet was married to Simon Bradstreet, with whom she had 5 children. She was one of the most well-known early English poets of North America. Anne was the first published and accomplished writer in England’s North American colonies.
Anne wrote To My Dear And Loving Husband in 1678 for her husband.
By Anne Bradstreet
To My Dear And Loving Husband
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
I Love You
Ella Wheeler Wilcox was a well-loved poet who lived from November 5, 1850 – October 30, 1919. Her poem I love You was first published in her book of poems, Poems of Passion, in 1883.
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I Love You
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.
Not for me the cold, calm kiss
Of a virgin’s bloodless love;
Not for me the saint’s white bliss,
Nor the heart of a spotless dove.
But give me the love that so freely gives
And laughs at the whole world’s blame,
With your body so young and warm in my arms,
It sets my poor heart aflame.
So kiss me sweet with your warm wet mouth,
Still fragrant with ruby wine,
And say with a fervor born of the South
That your body and soul are mine.
Clasp me close in your warm young arms,
While the pale stars shine above,
And we’ll live our whole young lives away
In the joys of a living love.
I loved you first: but afterwards your love
Christina Georgina Rossetti was famous for her writings of children’s devotional and romantic poems. She was an English poet who lived from December 5, 1830 – December 29, 1894. Christina was most known for her poems “Goblin Market“ and “Remember.”
Christina’s poem Loved You First: But Afterwards Your Love is deemed one of the all-time romantic poems.
By Christina Rossetti
I Loved You First: But Afterwards Your Love
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.
Poem to an Unnameable Man
Dorothea Lasky, an American poet, was born in 1978 in St Louis, Mo, and resides there today. She has published 4 full collections of poetry and is a professor of poetry.
By Dorothea Lasky
Poem To An Unnameable Man
You have changed me already. I am a fireball
That is hurtling towards the sky to where you are
You can choose not to look up but I am a giant orange ball
That is throwing sparks upon your face
Oh look at them shake
Upon you like a great planet that has been murdered by change
O too this is so dramatic this shaking
Of my great planet that is bigger than you thought it would be
So you ran and hid
Under a large tree. She was graceful, I think
That tree although soon she will wither
Into ten black snakes upon your throat
And when she does I will be wandering as I always am
A graceful lady that is part museum
Of the voices of the universe everyone else forgets
I will hold your voice in a little box
And when you come upon me I won’t look back at you
You will feel a hand upon your heart while I place your voice back
Into the heart from where it came from
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
For Keeps
Joy Harjo, born in 1951, is the author of 9 books, published 5 original albums, and attended and read at many poetry events. She is an important figure of the Muscogee Nation.
Quoted from an interview conducted by Rob Casper:
Poetry is made to hold that which is too heavy for humans to hold. Poems can contain our grief, remorse, fury, even as they can reveal joy, celebration, and delight.
Joy Harjo
By Joy Harjo
For Keeps
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?
That 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.
Love Comes Quietly
Robert White Creeley was an author and American poet who lived from May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005. He wrote over sixty books and received the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
Love Comes Quietly was first published in his book of poems For Love in 1962.
By Robert Creeley
Love Comes Quietly
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.
Any one of these poems speak volumes of love. Choose one that matches your personality and lay it before the one special many in your life.
