Love, I think, is one of the first things many people think of when they think of poetry; we think of serenades and ballads, of writing poems in letter for a loved one, or the little rhymes that come inside of our greeting cards. Many of the greatest writers of all time have found themselves coming back to the topic time and time again. So, here are five of my favourite love poems – perhaps you can send them to somebody you love.
and you don’t think you’ve ever seen
anything more beautiful than the way
she walks towards you with a towel
on her head, water clinging to her
like there is nowhere else it would rather be.’
I adore the way this poem interlinks the mundane and the ethereal, in the same way romance often does. It is both the little moments and the ineffable mythology of ‘love’ itself. Siehl paints a love that consumes the subject, a love that makes everything else seem negligible in comparison.
And we’d hold and touch and let go of each other in all these different ways to say all these different things’
Thomas shows us a new kind of love that he has dreamed about – one that is nothing more than touch, a world that learns to communicate in those sensations without words. It’s a beautifully simple reimagining of our world that makes my heart warm when I read it.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.’
This is one of the first love poems that I remember reading, and it has stuck with me ever since. Duffy shows us the layers of love and the reality – a valentine beyond just the consumerist things we associate with the day, love in the organic ‘onion’ that may seem comical at first but the image is stunning in its simplicity.
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)’
https://allpoetry.com/i-carry-your-heart-with-me
This poem is perhaps the most well-known love poem on my list. Cummings’ poem is a well-crafted and raw illustration of enduring love. It depicts a love in which two hearts are inextricably entwined and the paired back language and form allow for love to be at the core.
Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time’
https://allpoetry.com/Unending-Love
If you are looking for a poem that shows the power of eternal love, then this is the poem for you. Tagore speaks of a profound love that goes beyond one life or one form, instead it falls into the realm of every love throughout time. This is rumoured to have been Audrey Hepburn’s favourite poem and I understand why.
The performance space at The Kings Arms is a relatively modest venue, essentially a large-ish room above a pub that’s well worth
Tulsa is a city that feeds the soul as much as the stomach, and Irish poet Jay Rafferty has captured its essence
Let’s drop the Hallmark card fantasies. Nature isn’t serene. It’s not here to cradle you while you write love letters to daffodils.
The Broken Spine is a poetry and arts collective proudly published on the coastal edge of North-West England. Founded in 2019 by Alan Parry and Paul Robert Mullen – two school friends reunited after twenty years through a mutual love of poetry.
