I’ve never been much of a poet myself. In high school, I tried writing love poems for my crush and they were absolutely terrible. Overly dramatic, full of forced rhymes, the kind of thing that makes you cringe when you find it years later in an old notebook.
But I’ve always loved reading poetry, especially love poetry. There’s something about the way poets distill the messy, complicated feeling of loving someone into perfect verses that just gets me every time.
My husband knows I’m a sucker for a good poem. For our fifth anniversary, he didn’t write me one (smart man, he knows his limits), but he did copy out my favorite lines from Elizabeth Barrett Browning in beautiful calligraphy and had it framed. It still hangs in our bedroom, and I read it sometimes when I can’t sleep.
This Valentine’s Day, instead of generic greeting cards, why not share one of these classic poems? These seven Valentine’s Day poems from some of history’s greatest poets have stood the test of time because they capture something true and beautiful about love. Some are romantic, some are bittersweet, all of them are stunning.
1. “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare
Let’s start with the master himself. This is probably Shakespeare’s most famous love sonnet, and it’s been read at countless weddings (including my own) for good reason. It defines what true love actually is: unwavering, constant, eternal.
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
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s 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 writ, nor no man ever loved.
What I love about this poem is Shakespeare’s absolute certainty. He’s so confident in his definition of love that he stakes his entire reputation on it. If he’s wrong about love being eternal and unchanging? Then he never wrote anything, and no one ever truly loved. That’s conviction.
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2. “How Do I Love Thee?” (Sonnet 43) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
This is the poem my husband had framed for me, and honestly, I never get tired of it. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote this during her secret courtship with Robert Browning, when her father forbade them from seeing each other. The passion and devotion in every line is breathtaking.
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.
The line that always gets me is “I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need.” That’s what long-term love is, isn’t it? Not just the grand gestures, but loving someone in the ordinary, everyday moments.
3. “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron
Byron was known for his romantic (and scandalous) life, but this poem is pure, elegant admiration. It’s about a woman whose beauty reflects her inner goodness, and it’s one of the most gorgeous poems in the English language.
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
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, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
I love how Byron compares her beauty to night rather than day. There’s something mysterious and romantic about that image that feels more genuine than comparing someone to the sun or stars.
4. “Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Shelley was one of the great Romantic poets, and this poem is his playful argument for why two people should be together. He uses nature as evidence: everything in the world mingles and joins, so why shouldn’t two people in love?
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;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?—
See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
This poem makes me smile every time. It’s flirtatious and sweet, making a logical case for love while being completely romantic about it.
5. “Wild Nights – Wild Nights!” by Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson was famously reclusive, which makes this passionate poem all the more intriguing. It’s short, intense, and filled with longing for nights spent with a lover.
Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah – the Sea!
Might I but moor – tonight –
In thee!
The imagery here is incredible. The idea of being done with navigation, of finding safe harbor in another person, of “rowing in Eden” together. It’s sensual and spiritual at the same time.
6. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
This is one of the most famous pastoral love poems, written in the 1590s. It’s the poet trying to seduce his love by describing all the beautiful, pleasurable things they could share together in the countryside.
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,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.
The shepherd’s birds shall sing and play
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
It’s idealized and probably unrealistic (real shepherding is hard work!), but there’s something charming about this vision of romantic life together.
7. “Music, When Soft Voices Die” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I wanted to end with something bittersweet and beautiful. This short poem by Shelley is about how love lingers even after everything else fades away.
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory—
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the belovèd’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
This one makes me think about how love doesn’t end when someone leaves. The memory of love, the impression they made on your heart, stays with you. It’s tender and melancholy and hopeful all at once.
What strikes me most about these poems is how they still feel fresh, even though some were written over 400 years ago. Shakespeare’s certainty about eternal love, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s passionate declarations, Emily Dickinson’s intense longing…these feelings haven’t changed. This Valentine’s Day, skip the generic greeting card and share one of these timeless poems instead. Copy it out by hand, text your favorite lines, or read it aloud over dinner. The words that moved people centuries ago will mean just as much when you share them with someone you love today.
