Five Famous Poems About Love, Just Right for St.Valentine's Day -How Many Do You Know?

I started writing poetry as a child. I write performance poetry, observational, sometimes humorous, sometimes serious human rights issues

These Love Poems Are Heart-Warming And Full Of Emotion

This is a collation of love poetry which you may consider to be most significant for St.Valentine's Day, but when you have read and absorbed them, you will know that they are equally relevant on the other 364 days.

Some of them you will probably know well and may have read or even learned at school. Others are not so well known. The poetry spreads over nearly 500 years, from Shakespeare to Caroline Duffy, the current English Poet Laureate. Old favorites and novelties, running a gamut of emotions.

How lucky we are to have such a rich culture of poetry in the English language.

William Shakespeare: Sonnet 116

The titles to Shakespeare's Poetry didn't always give much away by in the form of clues!

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose Worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom:

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

By William Shakespeare

How Do I Love Thee?

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways - Sonnet 43 - By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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 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.

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Greater Love Hath No Man Than This

Greater Love - By Wilfred Owen

(Love pales into insignificance next to war - this is about love without being a love poem)

Greater Love

Red lips are not so red

As the stained stones kissed by the English dead.

Kindness of wooed and wooer

Seems shame to their love pure.

O Love, your eyes lose lure

When I behold eyes blinded in my stead!

Your slender attitude

Trembles not exquisite like limbs knife-skewed,

Rolling and rolling there

Where God seems not to care;

Till the fierce Love they bear

Cramps them in death's extreme decrepitude.

Your voice sings not so soft, --

Though even as wind murmuring through raftered loft, --

Your dear voice is not dear,

Gentle, and evening clear,

As theirs whom none now hear

Now earth has stopped their piteous mouths that coughed.

Heart, you were never hot,

Nor large, nor full like hearts made great with shot;

And though your hand be pale,

Paler are all which trail

Your cross through flame and hail:

Weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not.

by Wilfred Owen

Beguiling By Roger McGough

A modern English Performance Poet whose quirky work I very much enjoy

Beguiling

She is so beguiling

That when she beckons

I can run a mile

In twenty seconds

By Roger McGough

Love Is Like An Onion - Peel Away The Strips And You'll Find More Love Inside

Valentine - By Carol Ann Duffy

The Current English Poet Laureate

Valentine

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light

like the careful undressing of love.

Here.

It will blind you with tears

like a lover.

It will make your reflection

a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.

Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,

possessive and faithful

as we are,

for as long as we are.

Take it.

Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,

if you like.

Lethal.

Its scent will cling to your fingers,

cling to your knife.

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Embrace The Moment - A Poem

By Carol Ann Duffy

Have You Ever Written Any Poetry?

Take the Poll Below About Writing Poetry:

You can express your deepest feelings in poetry.Or you can be very stilted and self-conscious. Some poetry rhymes, some of it has meter.And some poetry seems to be just words strung together, like magnets with words which are moved around on a fridge door

A YouTube Video: Shakespeare's Love Poetry - "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?" - Read By Jose Fernandez

And Another Video- "How do I Love Thee?"

And, Below, You Will See A Romantic Flower: Love-Lies-Bleeding

This plant is also known as Bleeding Heart, botanical name Lamprocapnos spectabilis (formerly Dicentra spectabilis), a genus which is actually native to eastern Asia and North America but which happily grows in the UK, my home country.

Here is my photograph, taken in late spring, of love-lies-bleeding, surrounded by forget-me-nots and purple polyanthus, which look their best at that time of year.

I love growing plants like this in my garden. And the marvellous thing is that they all grow in the shade, and I can sit at my desk in my conservatory, look out of my back window and see them flourishing.

Bleeding Heart

Here's Some Love Poetry Written By Me:

Teflon Tony - an Unromantic Poem - about a woman in a relationship with a man who has the empathy of a crocodile

Two Unusual Love Poems - about the essence of love, which is indefinable really

Just To Round Things Off, A Romantic Card For Lovers - I Designed This On Zazzle

Would You Like To Leave A Comment Here? - Just Say A Few Words - Did You Enjoy The Poetry? Did It Bring Back Memories?

Thelma Alberts from Germany on February 05, 2018:

I love them all. Lovely poems! Thanks for sharing.

Elsie Hagley from New Zealand on February 07, 2015:

Excellent choice of poetry for Valentine's Day.

Many memories in these.

Thanks for sharing.

Diana Grant (author) from United Kingdom on February 10, 2014:

@mbgphoto: Glad you enjoyed it

Diana Grant (author) from United Kingdom on February 10, 2014:

@Brite-Ideas: Glad you like them

Barbara Tremblay Cipak from Toronto, Canada on February 09, 2014:

lovely selection of poems

Mary Beth Granger from O'Fallon, Missouri, USA on February 09, 2014:

I really like Elizabeth Barrett Brownings "How do I Love Thee" Thanks for the memories.

Avi Wolfson from Massachusetts on July 06, 2013:

Great lens, wonderfully written!

Diana Grant (author) from United Kingdom on February 08, 2013:

@Brians Secretary: I think we must have been much encouraged to read, learn and recite poetry when I was at school and it just stayed with me

Diana Grant (author) from United Kingdom on February 08, 2013:

@Paul Ward: That's what I like to hear! Not everyone likes Roger McGough, but I think he's marvellous - I only discovered him about 3 or 4 years ago, at a local poetry group. Thanks so much for the blessing

Paul from Liverpool, England on February 08, 2013:

Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Roger McGough! Blessed in a flash :)

Brians Secretary on February 08, 2013:

No matter how I try I just can't get into poetry. But I do appreciate the work it takes to produce.

Bill Armstrong from Valencia, California on December 07, 2011:

Thanks for sharing

beerhead on February 24, 2011:

Beautiful poetry. Very romantic and love oriented lens.

anonymous on February 07, 2011:

Valentine and romantic poetry goes hand in hand. This is the time poets can showcase their masterpieces.