14 Love-Themed Poems to Send Your Admirer This Valentine’s Day
Because romance shouldn’t die in the digital age
A single red rose lays on a bed of paper. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Poems breathe life into the emotions locked deep in our hearts. In this fast-paced, digital age, wouldn’t it be nice if poetry could speak to you the same way that #CatTok can?
This Valentine’s Day, Fire & Ash has compiled 14 poems. We’ve dug up everything from the classics of William Shakespeare, rose-themed imagery, declarations of quiet love and self-love, and so much more. Whether you’re feeling ravenous for physical touch, or feeling appreciative of a friend, you can share these bite-sized poems, perfect for the season of love.
FOR THE LOVE-STRICKEN
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare was famous for infusing dramatic plotlines with musical language. Romance was an integral theme for most of his plays, so it’s no wonder that Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? topped our love-themed list! This poem’s sensory descriptions of May will make you hopeful for spring.
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 gives life to thee.
TO NURTURE THE GARDEN OF LOVE
Robert Burns
Written in 1794, the lyrics of this Scottish song still ring true today. The syncopated cadence of Burns’ poem will remind you of the Atlantic sea, or maybe the heartbeat of your bonnie lass.
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.
John Boyle O’Reilly
O’Reilly believes that red roses symbolize passion, while “the white rose breathes of love”. If you’re planning to express your deepest feelings on February 14th, this poem will be perfect for getting to the point quickly. Don’t forget to send this with a single white rose – your admirer will adore your attention to detail.
The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.
But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.
TO QUIETLY DECLARE YOUR LOVE
Rita Dove
Flirtation is perfect for your eternal flame, for your twin soul, that special person who knows what you’re thinking. Send this short poem by Rita Dove – it’s bursting with sensory images that will declare your love. You won’t have to do much speaking after you send it.
After all, there’s no need
to say anything
at first. An orange, peeled
and quartered, flares
like a tulip on a wedgewood plate
Anything can happen.
Outside the sun
has rolled up her rugs
and night strewn salt
across the sky. My heart
is humming a tune
I haven’t heard in years!
Quiet’s cool flesh—
let’s sniff and eat it.
There are ways
to make of the moment
a topiary
so the pleasure’s in
walking through.
FOR A DOSE OF SELF-LOVE
Derek Walcott
Who says that Valentine’s Day has to be restricted to couples (or throuples, depending on what you’re into)? Love After Love will inspire you to see your reflection in a more sympathetic light. We’ve all experienced lonely moments. Walcott’s poem – filled with self-reflective short sentences – paints the universal experience of solitude with optimistic brush strokes.
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
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.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
TO EXPRESS PLATONIC LOVE
Henry Timrod
Your best friend will appreciate a sonnet this Valentine’s Day, whether they’re single or coupled up. Henry Timrod reminds us to equate our friendships with romantic relationships, but “without love’s flame”. Take time to celebrate all your loved ones – with flowers, with favours, with quality time.
I thank you, kind and best beloved friend,
With the same thanks one murmurs to a sister,
When, for some gentle favor, he hath kissed her,
Less for the gifts than for the love you send,
Less for the flowers, than what the flowers convey;
If I, indeed, divine their meaning truly,
And not unto myself ascribe, unduly,
Things which you neither meant nor wished to say,
Oh! tell me, is the hope then all misplaced?
And am I flattered by my own affection?
But in your beauteous gift, methought I traced
Something above a short-lived predilection,
And which, for that I know no dearer name,
I designate as love, without love’s flame.
Emily Brontë
Like Henry Timrod’s sonnet, Emily Brontë also compares love and friendship. This poem indulges the senses in vivid metaphors and similes that are fit for all the seasons. Love and Friendship stresses the importance of nurtured relationships with a breeziness that is refreshing and timeless.
Love is like the wild rose-briar,
Friendship like the holly-tree—
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms
But which will bloom most constantly?
The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring,
Its summer blossoms scent the air;
Yet wait till winter comes again
And who will call the wild-briar fair?
Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now
And deck thee with the holly’s sheen,
That when December blights thy brow
He still may leave thy garland green.
A PROMISE FOR A LOVER
I carry your heart with me(I carry it in
e. e. cummings
Spectacular in its form and content, this love poem is gentle yet passionate, urgent yet calm. Poet e.e. cummings creates an opportunity for readers to reacquaint themselves with the feeling of love – because surely it must feel like every line in I carry your heart with me.
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)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
Elizabeth Barrett
With a simple rhyme scheme, How Do I Love Thee is direct in its message – I love you, and I love you a lot. Send Elizabeth Barrett’s poem if there’s somebody in your life who needs a promise of your genuine love.
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 every day’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 the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
A fountain pen writes in cursive on lined paper. Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
FOR THE PASSIONATE LOVER
Federico García Lorca
Can you hear the slow acoustic guitar? Can you feel the warm sun? You certainly will after reading To Find a Kiss of Yours. Written by “one of the most important Spanish poets of the twentieth century”, Federico García Lorca speaks to the lovesick – the ones who yearn for a happy ending. This Valentine’s Day, send this poem to express your lover’s natural perfection. To make your beloved swoon, recite Lorca’s romantic poem in Spanish.
To find a kiss of yours
what would I give
A kiss that strayed from your lips
dead to love
My lips taste
the dirt of shadows
To gaze at your dark eyes
what would I give
Dawns of rainbow garnet
fanning open before God—
The stars blinded them
one morning in May
And to kiss your pure thighs
what would I give
Raw rose crystal
sediment of the sun
FOR THE RAVENOUS LOVER
P. Neruda
Are you starved for affection? Our recommendation: read Neruda’s Love Sonnet XI. Do you still feel ravenous? Now it’s time to express your raw animalistic passion. Nourish your wild side and send this sonnet. Let’s hope that somebody who is love-hungry is on the receiving end.
crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.
I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.
I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,
and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.
POEMS TO INSPIRE BY RUMI
Jalal al-Din Rumi
This short poem by Rumi urges us to be present in our relationships. Let’s Love Each Other is a Farsi-language poem, written in the 13th-century. Send this poem to any of your loved ones as a gentle reminder to be appreciative of those around us, because “why adore the dead but battle the living?”
Let’s love each other,
let’s cherish each other, my friend,
before we lose each other.
You’ll long for me when I’m gone.
You’ll make a truce with me.
So why put me on trial while I’m alive?
Why adore the dead but battle the living?
You’ll kiss the headstone of my grave.
Look, I’m lying here still as a corpse,
dead as a stone. Kiss my face instead!
Jalal al-Din Rumi
This inspiring poem encourages us to seek out another type of love – the love of life. Despite the weather, despite unhappiness, Rumi wants us to learn to laugh, to laugh in the face of fear, and to laugh “even when you lose”. This attitude (and the poem’s imagery) will deliver serenity to your soul.
Your laughter turns the world to paradise.
It tears through me like fire.
It teaches me.
Reborn in emptiness,
I emerge laughing,
here to learn from Love
new depths of laughter.
I’ve been short on courage,
but I have a heart of sunlight,
straight from the king’s hand.
I stir up laughter even in those who fear joy.
Crack open my shell. Steal the pearl.
I’ll still be laughing.
It’s the rookies who laugh only when they win.
Last night, the spirit of dawn came to my room
and gave me a lesson in laughter.
Our blazing roars lit the morning sky.
When I brood like a rain cloud,
laughter flashes through me.
It’s the habit of lightning to laugh through a storm.
Look at the furnace. Look at the stones.
See the glowing red veins?
Gold—laughing in fire, daring you,
“Prove you’re no fake!
Laugh even when you lose.”
We’re fodder for death so learn to laugh
from the angel of death.
He laughs at the jeweled belts and crowns of kings—
all that splendor’s just on loan.
Treetop blossoms erupt in laughter.
Petals rain down.
Laugh like the bud of a flower,
hugging the ground.
Its hidden smile opens to a laugh that lasts a lifetime.
A PRESCRIPTION FOR LOVE
January Gill O’Neil
A sensory-seeking poem that’s perfect for this week’s wintry weather, How to Love is best described by the poet herself: “I should have called this poem, ‘How to Trust Again.’ How does one stay open and believe in love after a betrayal? It’s a meditation on hope, really. Also, any poem I can fit my name into is a good one.”
After stepping into the world again,
there is that question of how to love,
how to bundle yourself against the frosted morning—
the crunch of icy grass underfoot, the scrape
of cold wipers along the windshield—
and convert time into distance.
What song to sing down an empty road
as you begin your morning commute?
And is there enough in you to see, really see,
the three wild turkeys crossing the street
with their featherless heads and stilt-like legs
in search of a morning meal? Nothing to do
but hunker down, wait for them to safely cross.
As they amble away, you wonder if they want
to be startled back into this world. Maybe you do, too,
waiting for all this to give way to love itself,
to look into the eyes of another and feel something—
the pleasure of a new lover in the unbroken night,
your wings folded around him, on the other side
of this ragged January, as if a long sleep has ended.
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If you love any of these 14 poems, perhaps you’ll enjoy the literary depictions of love in Prefaces by Joseph Conrad, available here through Fire & Ash Publishers. This collection of prefaces has been described as a “love letter to the art of prose”.
Which of these poems will you be sending to your admirer this Valentine’s Day?
A typewriter. Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash