Love and poetry have shared a deep bond since ancient times — a connection that remains unbroken even today. Whether it's the timeless works of William Shakespeare or the modern verses of Rupi Kaur, it's hard to find a poet in history who hasn't written about love or romance.
Love is a universal emotion that resonates with people of all ages — it's truly an evergreen topic. And love doesn't always have to be romantic. It can be for anyone — a mother, sister, friend, or even a divine presence.
With that spirit in mind, we've curated 50 beautifully written love poems that you can share with anyone, anytime — whether it's over a romantic dinner, on Mother's Day, or simply as a heartfelt gesture.
We hope this collection touches your heart and brings you closer to the ones you love.
1. "Sonnet 18" – 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,
2. "How Do I Love Thee?" – 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
3. "She Walks in Beauty" – 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
4. "Love's Philosophy" – Percy Bysshe Shelley
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;
5. "A Red, Red Rose" – 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,
6. "Bright Star" – 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
7. "The Good-Morrow" – John Donne
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.
8. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" – Anne Bradstreet
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
9. "When You Are Old" – 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,
10. "i carry your heart with me" – 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)
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11. "Sonnet 116" – 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
12. "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" – Christopher Marlowe
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
13. "Meeting at Night" – Robert Browning
The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
14. "Love After Love" – Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
15. "To Celia" – 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
16. "The Sun Rising" – John Donne
Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
17. "A Birthday" – Christina Rossetti
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
18. "Give All to Love" – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Give all to love;
Obey thy heart;
Friends, kindred, days,
Estate, good-fame,
Plans, credit, and the Muse,—
19. "The Definition of Love" – Andrew Marvell
My love is of a birth as rare
As 'tis for object strange and high:
It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility.
Magnanimous Despair alone
20. "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" – 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.
21. "Sonnet XVII" – 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.
22. "The Quiet World" – Jeffrey McDaniel
In an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
the government has decided to allot
each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day...
23. "Having a Coke With You" – Frank O'Hara
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, 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
24. "Variations on the Word Love" – Margaret Atwood
This is a word we use to plug
holes with. It's the right size for those warm
blanks in speech, for those red heart-
shaped vacancies on the page that look nothing
like real hearts...
25. "The Orange" – Wendy Cope
At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I had a half.
26. "Wild Nights – Wild Nights!" – Emily Dickinson
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the Winds –
To a Heart in port –
27. "The Taxi" – Amy Lowell
When I go away from you
The world beats dead
Like a slackened drum.
I call out for you against the jutted stars
And shout into the ridges of the wind.
28. "Love Poem" – John Frederick Nims
My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,
At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,
Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen,
And have no cunning with any soft thing...
29. "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter" – Li Bai (trans. Ezra Pound)
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
30. "somewhere i have never travelled" – E.E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
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 near
31. "Habitation" – Margaret Atwood
Marriage is not
a house or even a tent
it is before that, and colder:
the edge of the forest, the edge
of the desert...
32. "The Hug" – Tess Gallagher
A woman is reading a poem on the street
and another woman stops to listen.
We stop too, with our arms around each other...
33. "The Floral Apron" – Marilyn Chin
The woman wore a floral apron around her neck,
that woman from my mother's village
with a sharp cleaver in her hand...
34. "Warming Her Pearls" – Carol Ann Duffy
Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress
bids me wear them, warm them, until evening
when I'll brush her hair...
35. "Poem to My Husband" – Toi Derricotte
I remember the way the moon
touched your shoulder,
as if it were a hand,
as if it were my hand...
36. "The Promise" – Jane Hirshfield
Stay, I said
to the cut flowers.
They bowed
their heads lower...
37. "After Love" – Sara Teasdale
After love, there is no love,
Though the sweet body lies still,
And the quiet eyes look up
To the quiet sky...
38. "The Clod and the Pebble" – William Blake
"Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."
So sung a little Clod of Clay...
39. "Married Love" – Kuan Tao-Sheng
You and I
Have so much love,
That it
Burns like a fire...
40. "The Silken Tent" – Robert Frost
She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when a sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent...
41. "One Art" – Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster...
42. "The Dream Keeper" – Langston Hughes
Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies...
43. "Love" – Carol Ann Duffy
Not a red rose or a satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper...
44. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" – W.B. Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee...
45. "When I Heard at the Close of the Day" – Walt Whitman
When I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd with plaudits in the capitol...
46. "The Flea" – John Donne
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou denieth me is;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee...
47. "To His Mistress Going to Bed" – John Donne
Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
Until I labour, I in labour lie...
48. "The Garden of Love" – William Blake
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst...
49. "A Glimpse" – Walt Whitman
A glimpse through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove...
50. "Love's Growth" – John Donne
I scarce believe my love to be so pure
As I had thought it was,
Because it doth endure
Vicissitude, and season, as the grass...
💕 Final Thoughts
These 50 romantic poems span centuries and continents, proving that love's language is truly universal. From Shakespeare's immortal sonnets to modern poets who capture contemporary romance, each verse reminds us that love has been humanity's greatest inspiration throughout history.
Whether you're whispering them to a lover, sharing them with a friend, or savoring them in quiet solitude, these poems speak to the deepest chambers of the heart. They celebrate every facet of love — the passionate, the tender, the complex, and the eternal.
Love poetry has the unique power to articulate feelings we struggle to express ourselves. In these verses, we find the words for our most profound emotions, the language for our deepest connections. They remind us that love, in all its forms, is what makes us most human.
May these timeless words kindle your heart's deepest fires and inspire you to cherish the love that surrounds you every day. After all, as these poets have shown us, love is not just an emotion — it's the poetry of existence itself. ❤️
Want to create your own romantic verses? Check out our AI Poem Generator to craft personalized love poems that speak from your heart.
