11. 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 brought
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.
Neither love me for thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry-
A creature might forget to weep, who bore their comfort long, and lose
their love thereby
But love me for love’s sake, that evermore thou mayst love on,
Through love’s eternity.
12. From The Canterbury Tales …
Do not sing for a bird or a flower,
Nor for snow nor for ice,
Nor even for cold or warmth,
Nor for the return of the green to the meadows;
Nor for any other pleasure
Do I sing, nor have I ever sung,
But for my lady for whom I long,
For she is the fairest in the world.
13. Words …
I had this thought a while ago,
“My darling cannot understand
What I have done, or what would do
In this blind bitter land.”
And I grew weary of the sun
Until my thoughts cleared up again,
Remembering that the best I have done
Was done to make it plain;
That every year I have cried, “At length
My darling understands it all,
Because I have come into my strength,
And words obey my call;”
That had she done so who can say
What would have shaken from the sieve?
I might have thrown poor words away
And been content to live.
14. “The Sunrise Ruby”
from The Essential Rumi, translation by C. Barks
In the early morning hour,
just before dawn, lover and beloved wake
and take a drink of water.
She asks, “Do you love me or yourself more?
Really, tell the absolute truth.”
He says, “There’s nothing left of me.
I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise,
Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness? It has no resistance
to sunlight.”
15. Love Sonnet …
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 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
breadth, smiles, tears, of all my life! – and
If God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
16. Sonnet 55 …
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this give life to thee.
17. A Charm Invests a Face …
A charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld.
The lady dare not lift her veil
For fear it be dispelled.
But peers beyond her mesh,
And wishes, and denies,
Lest interview annul a want
That image satisfies.
18. Art Thou Pale for Weariness …
Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,
And ever changing, like a joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy?
19. Beauty…
Have seen dawn and sunset on moors and windy hills
Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain:
I have seen the lady April bringing in the daffodils,
Bringing the springing grass and the soft warm April rain.
I have heard the song of the blossoms and the old chant of the sea,
And seen strange lands from under the arched white sails of ships;
But the loveliest things of beauty God ever has showed to me
Are her voice, and her hair, and eyes, and the dear red curve of her lips.
20. Because she would ask me why I loved her …
If questioning would make us wise
No eyes would ever gaze in eyes;
If all our tale were told in speech
No mouths would wander each to each.
Were spirits free from mortal mesh
And love not bound in hearts of flesh
No aching breasts would yearn to meet
And find their ecstasy complete.
For who is there that lives and knows
The secret powers by which he grows?
Were knowledge all, what were our need
To thrill and faint and sweetly bleed?.
Then seek not, sweet, the “If” and “Why”
I love you now until I die.
For I must love because I live
And life in me is what you give.
Did these poems inspire a romantic mood in you? I hope so! Share them with someone special in your life by reading them aloud or sending them in a written note. Do you have other great love poems that I skipped over? Post titles, links, or the actual poem below… I’d love to read them!
Other Great Posts on Romance:
- 12 Most Famous Love Stories of All Time …
- 7 Most Romantic Destinations …
- 50+ Most Romantic Movies …
- 20 Inspiring Quotes about Love …
- Top 20 Classic Romantic Movies …
I love Sonnet 116. :)
Neruda poems are great, too.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
PS…I love all the ones you posted! These are all great for readings at a wedding! :)