We can thank poets for transferring love from heart to pen to paper. Romantic poetry resurfaces during engagements, weddings, and Valentine’s Day, when we’re prompted to ponder what love is, how we value it, and how we express it. Is our love best expressed by candy, cards, and flowers? These poets seem to think not. Turn to the experts for inspiration from these five staggering love poems that tap into the heart of true romance; there’s a poem for the lonely hearts this Valentine’s Day, too. Read on to sate your craving for sweetness without the candy.
“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)” by e. e. cummings
With this poem, Cummings captures the all-encompassing feeling of being in love. It’s the kind of love that follows you everywhere and exists deep within. This is what true romantics yearn for.
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)
“It Is Here” by Harold Pinter
This brief but nonetheless staggering love poem by Pinter has the effect of taking the reader’s breath away in the last three lines. We rise in anticipation of what the writer is asking about and delight in the beautifully written moment of a shared breath upon first meeting. Ah, love.
What sound was that? I turn away, into the shaking room. What was that sound that came on in the dark? What is this maze of life it leaves us in? What is this stance we take, to turn away, and then turn back? What did we hear? It was the breath we took when we first met. Listen. It is here.
“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
Poe’s poem is uber-romantic because of when it was written—it was his last poem before he died and is purportedly about his wife Virginia. Their love was stronger than the power of heaven and hell, which is saying a lot.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we— Of many far wiser than we— And neither the angels in Heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
“Touch” by Thom Gunn
Gunn beautifully illustrates the intimacy of touch in the domestic setting of being in bed with someone (with a cat there, too). The word love isn’t mentioned, but warmth and closeness can be felt from the words. The relatability of this is due, in part, to the anonymity of the subject of the poem. Is it a woman, a man? It doesn’t matter.
Meanwhile and slowly I feel a is it my own warmth surfacing or the ferment of your whole body that in darkness beneath the cover is stealing bit by bit to break down that chill.
“Love After Love” by Derek Walcott
If you’re mending a broken heart this Valentine’s Day, take refuge in Walcott’s poem “Love After Love.” It’s about loving oneself again by turning inward and reflecting.
You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart.”
Concluding our ode to romantic poetry is a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke about what it really means to love:
To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
Perhaps this is why these poets dedicated their work to the subject, proving love is worth more than candy, cards, and flowers.
Now that you’re feeling inspired about love, what are your favorite lines of romantic poetry?
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