Famous Love Poems

Classic Love Poems by Famous Poets
From the first prick of Cupid's arrow to the bitterness of heartbreak, poets throughout the ages have written on the mysteries of love. Their rhymes and allegories help us to better understand our emotions and sort the many ups and downs of love. Whether a simple crush or years of marriage, poetry throughout the centuries has helped express and illuminate the difficult sentiments of the heart. Turning to poetry can help us to put words to the passions and excitements that love inflames within us and to direct that fire to the forging and melding of two hearts together.
23 of the Best Famous Love Poems
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1. When I Die I Want Your Hands On My Eyes
When I die I want your hands on my eyes:
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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.Featured Shared StoryWhile I feel the love that he has for his beloved, I find the last sentence of the last stanza of the poem physically difficult to read. It just feels awkward. It is very touching and...
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2. [i Carry Your Heart With Me(i Carry It In]
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
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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)Featured Shared StoryI just heard this today and love, love, love this poem. I am not really a reader, especially poetry, though I do enjoy both and lived through that lens growing up. But I wouldn't generally be...
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3. One Hundred Love Sonnets
I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
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or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.Featured Shared StoryThis poem touched my heart in ways that I didn't even know was possible. I never thought I would be able to understand my own heart as well as I do now. This poem completely captures the way...
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4. Love's Language
How does Love speak?
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In the faint flush upon the telltale cheek,
And in the pallor that succeeds it; by
The quivering lid of an averted eye--Featured Shared StoryBeautiful, with lots of emotion by way of description. I think of the French poet Edmond Rostand's character Cyrano de Bergerac and the Russian playwright Anton Chekov, two very unique...
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Featured Shared Story
Once during the elective courses I teach - visualisation of poems by different poets- one of my students made a video artwork with her own drawings, illustrating this poem. It is one of the...
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6. I Love You
I love your lips when they’re wet with wine
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And red with a wild desire;
I love your eyes when the lovelight lies
Lit with a passionate fire.Featured Shared StoryI love "I Love You" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. She tells it as it is when young hearts are lit with hearts on fire in the midst of desire. Love is meant to be happy and carefree. Heaven knows in...
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7. How Do I Love Thee?
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
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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.Featured Shared StoryOn August 25, 2017, the love of my life and I had been chatting while he shaved. I walked away, and I was gone 12 minutes. Sometime in those stupid 12 minutes he dropped to his knees and died...
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8. Love Sonnet XI
I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
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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. -
9. Don't Go Far Off, Not Even For A Day
Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
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because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep. -
10. I Am Not Yours
I am not yours, not lost in you,
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Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea. -
11. I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You
I do not love you except because I love you;
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I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.Featured Shared StorySounds like what every humble man goes through 'till he wins her heart or someone comes along and steals her away from him.
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12. Invitation To Love
Come when the nights are bright with stars
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Or come when the moon is mellow;
Come when the sun his golden bars
Drops on the hay-field yellow. -
13. I Wish I Could Remember That First Day
I wish I could remember that first day,
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First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or winter for aught I can say; -
14. Love's Coming
She had looked for his coming as warriors come,
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With the clash of arms and the bugle's call;
But he came instead with a stealthy tread,
Which she did not hear at all.Featured Shared StoryI had an old book of EWW poems when I was young that had belonged to my Grandmother, who was born in 1904, given to her by my Grandfather. Reading them brings back some memories. I didn't...
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15. Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, Gladly Beyond
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
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any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too nearFeatured Shared StoryThis poem is the one that did it! I read this along with my class, in seventh grade, and was forever inspired by the way Cummings uses words to create this picture of love and roses. He uses...
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16. Always Marry An April Girl
Praise the spells and bless the charms,
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I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;Featured Shared StoryI was searching for a short poem that encapsulates the love I have for my wife. When I saw this, I knew. My wife's birthday is in April. The double meaning of marrying an April girl really...
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17. A Dream Girl
You will come one day in a waver of love,
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Tender as dew, impetuous as rain,
The tan of the sun will be on your skin,
The purr of the breeze in your murmuring speech, -
18. If Thou Must Love Me
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
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Except for love's sake only. Do not say
I love her for her smile ... her look ... her way
Of speaking gently, ... for a trick of thought -
19. Advice To A Girl
No one worth possessing
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Can be quite possessed;
Lay that on your heart,
My young angry dear; -
20. My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
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Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.Featured Shared StoryHow absolutely lovely! The way the poem 'shows' more than tells is magnificent; this is an art unto itself!
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