14 Best Love Poems

1. I Love You

   Poet: Roy Croft
   
   I love you,
   Not only for what you are,
   But for what I am
   When I am with you.
   
   Read the complete poem, I Love You, Roy Croft Poem




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The poem If You But Knew beautifully expresses the poet's quiet and selfless devotion to their beloved. Through heartfelt words, the poet reveals how their love fills every moment, even if unspoken or unseen. They dream of being fully understood and cherished in return, while accepting the freedom to love silently. Readers can expect a tender and emotional reflection on love’s strength, patience, and deep longing, written with sincerity and hope.



2. If You But Knew

   Poet Unknown
   
   If you but knew
   How all my days seemed filled with dreams of you,
   How sometimes in the silent night
   Your eyes thrill through me with their tender light,
   How oft I hear your voice when others speak,
   How you 'mid other forms I seek-
   Oh, love more real than though such dreams were true
   If you but knew.
   
   Could you but guess
   How you alone make all my happiness,
   How I am more than willing for your sake
   To stand alone, give all and nothing take,
   Nor chafe to think you bound while I am free,
   Quite free, till death, to love you silently,
   Could you but guess.
   
   Could you but learn
   How when you doubt my truth I sadly yearn
   To tell you all, to stand for one brief space
   Unfettered, soul to soul, as face to face,
   To crown you king, my king, till life shall end,
   My lover and likewise my truest friend,
   Would you love me, dearest, as fondly in return?
   Could you but learn?




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Valentines Day Poems



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3. Love Much

   Poet: Ella Wheeler Wilcox
   
   Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it;
   Cast sweets into its cup whene'er you can.
   No heart so hard, but love at last may win it;
   Love is the grand primeval cause of man;
   All hate is foreign to the first great plan......
   
   Read the complete poem, An Inspiring Poem Love Much





Funny Love Poems



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The poem My Heart Is A Lute compares the poet’s heart to a lute that was once silent until love awakened its song. Through the tender touch of their beloved, the heart began to sing with joy and emotion. However, the poet gently warns that love needs care and attention, as neglect could silence its music forever. Readers will find a touching reminder of love’s ability to bring life and its need for consistent nurturing to keep the melody alive.



4. My Heart Is A Lute

   Poet: Lady Anne Bernard
   
   Alas, that my heart is a lute,
   Whereon you have learned to play!
   For a many years it was mute,
   Until one summer's day
   You took it, and touched it, and made it thrill,
   And it thrills and throbs, and quivers still!
   
   I had known you, dear, so long!
   Yet my heart did not tell me why
   It should burst one morn into song,
   And wake to new life with a cry,
   Like a babe that sees the light of the sun,
   And for whom this great world has just begun.
   
   Your lute is enshrined, cased in,
   Kept close with love's magic key,
   So no hand but yours can win
   And wake it to minstrelsy;
   Yet leave it not silent too long, nor alone,
   Lest the strings should break, and the music be done.




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William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" is one of his most famous love poems. It praises the beloved’s beauty and compares it to a summer day, ultimately asserting that the beloved's beauty and essence will be eternal through the power of poetry.

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 is a celebration of love, beauty, and the enduring power of poetry. The beloved’s beauty is timeless, not because it defies aging, but because it is captured forever in the poet’s words.



5. Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day?

   (Sonnet 18)
   Poet: William Shakespeare
   
   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 dimmed;
   And every fair from fair sometime declines,
   By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
   But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
   Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
   Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest 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 gives life to thee.




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Sara Teasdale's I Am Not Yours is a heartfelt poem that expresses a deep longing for a love so powerful it consumes the speaker completely. While the speaker acknowledges the beauty of the love they already have, they yearn for a connection that goes beyond the surface—one that immerses them entirely, like a snowflake melting into the sea. This poem invites readers to reflect on the intensity and transformative nature of true, all-encompassing love.



6. I Am Not Yours

   Poet: Sara Teasdale
   
   I am not yours, not lost in you,
   Not lost, although I long to be
   Lost as a candle lit at noon,
   Lost as a snowflake in the sea.
   
   You love me, and I find you still
   A spirit beautiful and bright,
   Yet I am I, who long to be
   Lost as a light is lost in light.
   
   Oh plunge me deep in love -put out
   My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
   Swept by the tempest of your love,
   A taper in a rushing wind.




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Christina Rossetti's I Loved You First is a touching poem about the unity and shared strength of love. The speaker reflects on how love isn’t about measuring who loved first or who loved more—it’s about the bond that brings two people together as one. True love knows no division of “yours” or “mine,” but instead becomes something shared and whole. Readers will find this poem a beautiful reminder that real love is equal and everlasting.



7. I Loved You First

   Poet: Christina Rossetti
   
   I loved you first: but afterwards your love
   Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
   As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
   Which owes the other most? my love was long,
   And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;
   I loved and guessed at you, you construed me
   And loved me for what might or might not be –
   Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.
   For verily love knows not ‘mine’ or ‘thine;’
   With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done,
   For one is both and both are one in love:
   Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine;’
   Both have the strength and both the length thereof,
   Both of us, of the love which makes us one.




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Poems About Life and Love



8. Love Comes Quietly

   Poet: Robert Creeley
   
   Love comes quietly,
   finally, drops
   about me, on me,
   in the old ways.
   
   What did I know
   thinking myself
   able to go
   alone all the way.




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William Butler Yeats’ poem When You Are Old gently reminds us of the power of love that goes beyond appearances. It speaks of a love that cherished not just beauty but the heart and soul of a person, even through life’s changes. Yeats contrasts those who admired someone for their fleeting grace with one who loved deeply and truly. As time passes and memories fade, the poem encourages us to hold onto the love that saw us for who we truly are. It’s a heartfelt reflection on the value of lasting love and the memories that remain, even when life moves on.



9. When You Are Old

   Poet: William Butler Yeats
   
   When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
   And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
   And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
   Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
   
   How many loved your moments of glad grace,
   And loved your beauty with love false or true,
   But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
   And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
   
   And bending down beside the glowing bars,
   Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
   And paced upon the mountains overhead
   And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.




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10. Come, And Be My Baby

    Poet: Maya Angelou
    
    The highway is full of big cars going nowhere fast
    And folks is smoking anything that'll burn
    Some people wrap their lives around a cocktail glass
    And you sit wondering
    where you're going to turn.
    I got it.
    Come. And be my baby.
    
    Some prophets say the world is gonna end tomorrow
    But others say we've got a week or two
    The paper is full of every kind of blooming horror
    And you sit wondering
    what you're gonna do.
    I got it.
    Come. And be my baby.




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11. Encouraged

    Poet: Paul Laurence Dunbar
    
    Because you love me I have much achieved,
    Had you despised me then I must have failed,
    But since I knew you trusted and believed,
    I could not disappoint you and so prevailed.




Finding Love Poems



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12. Love For Love's Sake

    Poet: Mary Lowe Dickinson
    
    Why cling to the past at such terrible cost
    In weakness and doubt?
    Pray God to forget! Leave the days that are lost.
    Blot the yesterdays out!
    Not the Judge but the Father shines out in His face.
    Are you glad? He is more.
    One more outlet for love, one more claimant for grace,
    And His heart, that before
    Could not bless with a love which a wandering soul
    Could not answer or take.
    Gives the love long restrained in a jubilant whole.
    And loves for love's sake.




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13. A Red, Red Rose

    Poet: Robert Burns
    
    O my Luve is like a red, red rose
    That’s newly sprung in June;
    O my Luve is like the melody
    That’s sweetly played in tune.
    
    So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
    So deep in luve am I;
    And I will luve thee still, my dear,
    Till a’ the seas gang dry.
    
    Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
    And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
    I will love thee still, my dear,
    While the sands o’ life shall run.
    
    And fare thee weel, my only luve!
    And fare thee weel awhile!
    And I will come again, my luve,
    Though it were ten thousand mile.




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14. If I Could Write the Best Love Poem

    Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
    
    If I could write a love so true,
    The only thought would be of you.
    No fancy words, just how I feel,
    A love so pure, a love so real.
    
    No stars or moon, no skies so bright,
    Just thoughts of you both day and night.
    For every line, my heart would say,
    I love you more with each new day.




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Discover More from Famous Poets

Some of the poems featured on this page were written by these renowned poets. Click their names to learn more about them and their timeless works:

• Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Christina Rossetti
• Sara Teasdale
• Ella Wheeler Wilcox

For a full collection of celebrated poets, visit our Famous Poets page.