Nothing says ‘I love you' like a classic love poem
Romantics have written on the theme of marriage and relationships for thousands of years and love poetry has become a major source of inspiration for both wedding readings and couples writing their own vows.
We have chosen some of our favourites here - some verses are well-known, others almost forgotten but just as romantic today. Some can be used for religious ceremonies, some can be used for civil and some for both, so we have added our own guidance at the end (c= suitable for civil and r = suitable for religious) although you will still have to check all readings with your minister or registrar.
If Thou Must Love Me If thou must love me, let it be for naught 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 That falls in well with mine and certes bought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day.' For these things in themselves, beloved, may be changed, or changed for thee - and love so wrought may be unwrought so. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (r,c)
Sonnet from the Portuguese XLIII 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 everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. 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, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (r)
Doubt that the stars are fire Doubt that the sun doth move Doubt truth to be a liar But never doubt I love thee William Shakespeare from Hamlet (r,c)
No sooner met but they looked No sooner looked but they loved No sooner loved but they sighed No sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason No sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy William Shakespeare (r,c)
Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou are more lovely and more temperate; Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines. And often is his gold complexion dimm'd, And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or natures changing course untrimm'd: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest, Nor shall death brag thou wandrest in his shade, When in eternal lines top time thou growest, So long as men can breathe or eyes can see So long live this, and this gives life to thee William Shakespeare (r)
Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediment. 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 not shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Loves 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 write nor no man ever loved. William Shakespeare (r,c)
To My Dear Loving Husband If ever two were one, than surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye woman, 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 The while we live, in love let's so persevere That when we live no more, we may live ever. Anne Bradstreet (r)
To Anthea A heart as soft, a heart as kind A heart as sound and free As in the whole world thou canst find That heart I'll give to thee Robert Herrick (r,c)
Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score Then to that twenty, add a hundred more; A thousand to that hundred: so kiss on To make that thousand up a million. Treble that million and when that's done. Let's kiss afresh, as when we first begun Robert Herrick (r,c)
The Bargain My true love hath my heart, and I have his, By just exchange one for another given: I hold his dear and mine he cannot miss, There never was a better bargain driven: My true love hath my heart, and I have his.
His heart in me keeps him and me in one, My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides: He loves my heart, for once it was his own. I cherish his because in me it bides: My true love hath my heart, and I have his Sir Philip Sidney (r,c)
Garland you hair with majoram Soft-scented; veil your face and come smiling down to us, Saffron shoes on milk-white feet. Awakened on this happy day, Join us in lusty marriage songs Join us in dancing, holding high The marriage torch Catullus (r,c)
A red, red rose O my luve's like a red red rose That's newly sprung in June O my luve's like the melodie That's sweetly play'd in tune
As fair as thou art, my bonnie lass So deep in luve am I And I will luve thee still, me dear, Till a' the seas gang dry.
Till a the seas gang dry, my dear And the rocks melt wi' the sun. I will luve thee still, my dear While the sands o' life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve! And fare thee weel a while And I will come again my luve, Tho it were ten thousand miles Robert Burns (r,c)
Destiny Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours For one lone soul another lonely soul Each choosing each through all the weary hours And meeting strangely at one sudden goal. Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers Into one beautiful and perfect whole; And life's long night is ended, and the way Lies open onward to eternal day. Sir Edwin Arnold (r )
From Epithalamium This girl all in white Is my crystal of light Kissed by heaven to earth in a dancing gift Of a bride in her freshness, whom youth and love lift With two sunbeams for bridesmaids Their father's delight I have married my bride In a ring of green fields Round a church in a hill where all nature's her dress... Francis Warner (r)
Epithalamium Behold while she before the altar stands, Hearing the holy priest that to her speaks And blesseth her with his two happy hands, How the red roses flush up her cheeks, And the pure snow with goodly vermeil stain Like crimson dyed in grain; That even the angels which continually About the sacred altar do remain Forget their service and about her fly Oft peeping in her face, that seems more fair The more they on it stare Edmund Spenser (r )
First Love I ne'er was struck before that hour With love so sudden and so sweet Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower And stole my heart away complete My face turned a deadly pale My legs refused to walk away And when she looked what could I ail My life and all seemed turned to clay
And then my blood rushed to my face And took my eyesight quite away The trees and bushes round the place Seemed midnight at noon day I could not see a single thing Words from my eyes did start They spoke as chords do from the string And blood burned round my heart
Are flowers the winter's choice Is love's bed always snow? She seemed to hear my silent voice Not loves appeals to know I never saw so sweet a face As that I stood before My heart has left its dwelling place And can return no more. John Clare (r,c)
Love's Philosophy The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the ocean, The winds of heaven mix forever With a sweet emotion. Nothing in the world is single All things by a law divine In one another's being mingle Why not I with thine?
See the mountain's kiss high heaven And the waves clasp one another, No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdain'd its brother: And the sunlight clasps the earth And the moonbeams kiss the sea - What are all these kissing worth If thou kiss not me? Percy Bysshe Shelley (r)
She walks in beauty 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 impaired 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, so eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace will all below A heart whose love is innocent! Lord Byron (r )
The First Day I wish I could remember the first day, 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 So unrecorded did it slip away, So blind was I to see and foresee, So dull to mark the budding of my tree That would not blossom yet for many a May. If only I could recollect it such A day of days! I let it come and go As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow; It seemed to mean so little, meant so much; If only now I could recall that touch First touch of hand in hand - did one but know! Christina Rossetti (r,c)
A birthday 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 thickest 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 fleur-de-lys; Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me. Christina Rossetti (r,c)
Love and Friendship Love is like the wild rose-briar Friendship like the holly tree The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms But which will bloom most constantly?
The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring, Its summer blossoms scent the air Yet wait till winter comes again And who will call the wild-briar fair?
Then, scorn the silly rose-wreath now And deck with thee the holly's sheen, Then when December blights thy brow He still may leave thy garland green. Emily Bronte (r,c)
