The Best Love Poems of All Time

[ennison]

Here's one stanza from a Burns' poem posted elsewhere in the forums.


Yestreen when to the trembling string
The dance gaed through the lighted ha'
To thee my fancy took its wing
I sat, but neither heard nor saw:
Though this was fair and that was braw
And yon the toast of a the town,
I sighed, and said amang them a',
'Ye are na Mary Morison.'

[lavendar1]

Good stuff:

The elegies of Sextus Propertius - find them at:

tkline.freeserve/co.uk/Prophome.htm

[THX-1138]

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
T. S. Eliot

i love the last line

(Till human voices wake us, and we drown)

[NDL]

Now here's a real love poem.

Now sleeps the crimson petal
By
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.

Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake:
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.

[ArwenUndomiel]

One of my favourite poems

THE GOOD-MORROW
by John Donne

I wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then ?
But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly ?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?
'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear ;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown ;
Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west ?
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.

[Tasmanian]

The verses usually clumped together as 'Lucy' by Wordsworth (although there is much debate as to whether these verses are all about the same subject or not. Nevertheless, one of the most moving love poems I've read:

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

I travelled among unknown men
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.

'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more.

Among thy mountains did I feel
The joy of my desire;
And she I cherished turned her wheel
Beside an English fire.

Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,
The bowers where Lucy played;
And thine too is the last green field
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seem'd a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.

[Ledsepp]

THAT is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

William Butler Yeats

[kemal]

You Are A Must For Me


you are a must for me, you never know
i keep your name in my mind as a nail
your eyes getting more bigger as they get bigger
you are a must for me, you never know
i am heating inside of me with you


Trees are getting ready for autumn
this city is that old Istanbul?
clouds are torn aparts in darkness
street lights are immediately flashing
over sidewalks, the smell of rain
you are a must for me, you are absent


to love is sometimes a rather disgraceful fear
man gets tired all of a sudden in an evening
captive, with living over straight razor
sometime, breaks his hands, his passion
takes out a few lives in his lifetime
whichever door he knocks sometimes
behind him, whistle of the naught silence of loneliness


a poor gramphon plays in Fatih
from ancient times a Cuma* plays
standing in the corner, i would listen non-stop
i would bring an untouched sky to you
weeks are crumbled in my hands
what shall i do, what shall i hold on, where shall i go
you are a must for me, you are absent


maybe you are blue dotted child in june
Ah noone knows you, noone knows
a ship leaks from your deserted eyes
maybe you are taking an aeroplane in Yesilkoy
wholly got wet, your hair shudder
maybe you are blind, broken, in a hurry
Bad winds are carrying away your hair


whenever i think of living a life
maybe hard in this wolves table..
without a shame, though without getting our hands dirty
whenever i think of living a life
i start with your name, with saying Silence
your secret seas are moving inside of me
No, it wont happen in other ways
you are a must for me, you never know...

attila ilhan


does anbody read this?

[Bii]

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 another's being mingle--
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could 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?
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Entirely agree - can't beat a bit of Love's Philosophy - what a great love poem!

[xAleksx]

I think this is a really great love poem, I used it for my English assignment (year 12!).

Christopher Marlowe - Come Live With Me And Be My Love (The Passionate Shepherd To His Love)

Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks 5
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies, 10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd 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, 15
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. 20

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing 25
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

Wouldn't any woman love a man who spoke of his love for her like Marlowe???

[Lyn]

When you go - Edwin Morgan

When you go,
if you go,
And I should want to die,
there's nothing I'd be saved by
more than the time
you fell asleep in my arms
in a trust so gentle
I let the darkening room
drink up the evening, till
rest, or the new rain
lightly roused you awake.
I asked if you heard the rain in your dream
and half dreaming still you only said, I love you.

[hockeychick8792]

This is my favorite:

I Asked God
- John Raine -
I asked God for a flower, he gave me a bouquet
I asked God for a minute, he gave me a day
I asked God for true love, he gave me that too
I asked for an angel and he gave me you.

What do you think?

[ktd222]

This is my favorite:

I Asked God
- John Raine -
I asked God for a flower, he gave me a bouquet
I asked God for a minute, he gave me a day
I asked God for true love, he gave me that too
I asked for an angel and he gave me you.

What do you think?

It's nice. Kind of cheezy for me, though.

[hockeychick8792]

It's nice. Kind of cheezy for me, though.

What kind of poems do you like then, ktd222?

[ktd222]

What kind of poems do you like then, ktd222?

There is an array of poems dealing with an array of subject matters I adore, love being one matter. I just don't like this particular one.