The Best Love Poems of All Time

[Jannah]

I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
I love & yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do,yet dare not say I ever ment,
I seem stark mute but ijnward do prat.
I am & not,freeze & yet am burned.
Since from myself & another self I turned

I liked that first part alot... opposites, and all inside him, as if he's getting torn apart, almost.

[smilesad]

I guess the question lies within the mixtures of whats going on inside ourselves when the words came,
my favourite is by Miller Mair:
I ache silently toward what I can not reach
.....................

[1sweetkate]

I am new here and enjoyed everyone's posts. I too love Neruda, but my favorite love poem wasn't on here so thought I would share with you all...

TO ANTHEA, WHO MAY COMMAND HIM
ANYTHING.
by Robert Herrick

BID me to live, and I will live
Thy Protestant to be,
Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.

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.

Bid that heart stay, and it will stay
To honour thy decree :
Or bid it languish quite away,
And't shall do so for thee.

Bid me to weep, and I will weep
While I have eyes to see :
And, having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I'll despair
Under that cypress-tree :
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E'en death to die for thee.

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me :
And hast command of every part
To live and die for thee.

[IrishCanadian]

Thats very romantic 1sweetkate. Excelent choice. I wish I was able to pic out a favorite.

[james duffy]

Hi, I've enjoyed all of this. My view; Its hard to beat Robert Burns' "A Red, Red Rose". Its simple but beautiful, especially set to music. (Maybe being a Scot I am biased). I won't quote it; You can find it anywhere.

Also, the notion of Bess sacrificing her life to warn her lover of impending danger in Alfred Noyes' "The Highwayman" always gets to me. On a more contemporary note, I'm sure Monica will agree "Love is Blindness".

JD

[ElizabethSewall]

My favorite love poem at the time: Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Indian Serenade.

I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright.
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me -who knows how?
To thy chamber-window, Sweet!

The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream -
The champak odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart,
As I must die on thine,
O beloved as thou art!

Oh lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;
Oh press it close to thine again,
Where it will break at last!

By the way, I've read somewhere (I think it was in the French newspaper Ouest France) that they couldn't maintain the Protestant Cemetery, Rome, because they lacked money.
What will become of Keats' and Shelley's graves then???

[IrishCanadian]

By the way, I've read somewhere (I think it was in the French newspaper Ouest France) that they couldn't maintain the Protestant Cemetery, Rome, because they lacked money.
What will become of Keats' and Shelley's graves then???

I think that both these men have an epitaph that will last eternity. They wrote it in their life ... history never forgets saints and artists.

nguyenngoctue, who wrote that poem? Its lovely. I really reaslly like the second stanza.

[rachel]

I was going to say the very same thing Irish. It almost seems Tolkien like the way that Beren loved his Luthien Tinuvial

[tn2743]

Hi,

I like the 3rd stanza too, just as much as I like the 2nd. . It was written by Oscar Wilde.

[tn2743]

You cried

In my dream I caught your tear
In reality I stumbled,
Letting it slip through my fingers
And down it fell,
Joyfully like your laugh,
Tenderly like your smile
And, violently, my heart writhed
As its beauty splattered on the dirty ground
And, violently, my heart writhed
As its last sparkle died
And my heart broke,
With the tear,
As you cried

T.N.

[IrishCanadian]

I'm glad you came to add to this thread ... this one is definitely one of my favorite places in the website ... keep posting (please).

[chmpman]

T.N.

And that would be...?

[tn2743]

Sorry, T.N. is for Tue Nguyen

chmpman, may I ask you this: Is it true that Montana mountain goats sometime, fighting over a female, would headbutt so hard that their hooves fall off? Just a rumour I heard from a friend. Thanks

[Virgil]

Hi T.N.

Welcome to lit net. I've enjoyed your posts in the poem of the week thread. I hope you stick around. I enjoy talking to people who enjoy peotry.

By the way, are you of Vietnamese ethnicity?

[chmpman]

chmpman, may I ask you this: Is it true that Montana mountain goats sometime, fighting over a female, would headbutt so hard that their hooves fall off? Just a rumour I heard from a friend. Thanks

I've heard of no such rumor. Also, I've lived in Montana all my life and have never seen a mountain goat, so I claim no expertise. Some people, though, have some pretty mistaken perceptions of residents of the Big Sky State.